Devey Family

My First Triathlon!!!!!!

2012-01-21T15:39:00.000-08:00

Before the race began, waiting for my heat to start.

After my final lap, hence the super red face/neck, and sweaty everything!

Another after picture, I was so happy to be done!

I can finally say that I competed in a race, my last one was like 13 years ago in Joseph City when I did a 10K run. Today was not near that distance, but it was an awesome workout and I have a huge boost in my confidence right now. It was the second race in the BIG BLUE RACE SERIES at Utah State University. They are building on one another to prepare us for longer distances and all that. This one was a 300 yard swim, 5 mile ride on the spin bike (my butt is in serious pain), and a 2 mile run. This summer when we moved to Logan and had all these life changing events, I decided it was time for me to do something for myself. For years it wasn't that I didn't want to do it, it was just that I had so much going on in my life that I couldn't even think straight. Now that I am done with college and Jeremy is doing much better than before, I decided to start taking some time for me to exercise. It hasn't been easy, but it has helped me feel so much better and always starts and ends my day off nicely. I end up waking up around 5:00 am every morning, getting the kids up and fed and having them get dressed for school. Then I head off to the gym and Jeremy sees that they get off to school. Since July I have been swimming every morning from 6:30- 7:20, then I shower and get ready for work and just pop over next door to my building on USU campus, it is so convenient. Lately since I have been training for this triathlon, I have been leaving work a little earlier than usual and I will go run two miles and do the bike before I go home (don't worry, I have permission). It has really been great! Jeremy and I have both been on the Ketogenic diet for his seizures since August, he has lost 70 lbs and I have lost 52 lbs. I can't wait to loose about 40 more! Anyways, that was just some background info on prepping for this thing.

My kids were so excited to watch me do this triathlon. Last night they kept saying that I needed to be taken care of, so between the two of them, I had the dishes done and put away after dinner. Each kid gave one foot an awesome foot rub. Skyler gave a killer back rub, and they combed my hair, it was funny, but quite nice. This morning I woke up at 5am and couldn't go back to sleep, I was excited, nervous, and a whole mess of emotions. After we ate breakfast, the kids really wanted to make signs to hold up for me, it was super sweet. When I got to the pool, they wrote the number 150 on each of my arms (with a permanent marker). Kenzie is very upset about that, but I think it's cool. There was room for 60 people to register for this Triathlon. I was placed in the 4th heat, there was 12 of us in it. When they blew the whistle my heart about jumped out of my chest. It was the strangest, adrenaline packed moment to know I was actually doing it, something I never thought I could do. I was so nervous, but I knew it would be OK, my only goal was to finish the triathlon without having to walk at all and to keep my time around an hour.

The swim went well, I wasn't worried about that leg of it, I typically swim a 2000 or more every morning and this was only a 300( hitting the wall 12 times). I actually was the first one finished and out of the pool during my heat. That was a great way to start out, especially since I knew I would be passed by many come time for the run. After climbing out of the pool I did a poor job of drying off and throwing my shoes and clothes on, I took off out of their very quickly about "eating it" on the way, I literally slip out the door, I think the guy coming up behind me may have been a little disappointed I was able to catch my balance, that would have provided a good laugh.

After running down the road and across the street to the other campus gym, I jumped onto the spin bike and peddled like crazy, my butt fell asleep after about 3 minutes and my legs were both slightly numb, so that went pretty quick. One person from my heat finished the 5 miles before me, like 45 seconds before, but that didn't bother me at all, I was just so happy I wasn't dead last.

Once I jumped off the bike I went straight to the track where I had to run 15 laps (UGGGHHH) the run was by far the worst for me, but I just told myself I was not able to walk, I had to run the whole way. Yes I was passed by several people, but who cares, I was doing way better than I thought I could. Every time I would pass the front of the track, my little fan club would hold up their signs, cheer me on, and tell me how many more laps I had left. It was just the motivation I needed to keep moving. My thoughts were just to keep moving forward and not stop and not fall. The worst disappointment was when I thought I was on my last lap and the timers yelled to me Yay, only 2 more. I was so sad, I didn't think I was going to be able to, I had to just stay in the zone and push through. On my last lap when I got to the end, I decided to give it all I had and sprint, after crossing the finish line and stopping, my head was spinning, and I was quite thirsty, so I got a drink, greeted my family and felt the LOVE! The kids were awesome, they kept saying things like, "how did you not have to stop," "I can't believe you did it," "that was amazing!" I think they really just wanted me to say "OK lets go get you guys some lunch." It was fun, I sat down, stretched a little, then went to find out the time. I had no idea, I totally lost all sense of time as I was just willing myself to continue on. The coach said I had done it in 40 minutes and 45 seconds, I was thrilled. I asked him how close I was to last place, he started naming off all these other peoples times, 59, 56, 52, 49, I was ecstatic that I wasn't only not in last place, but far from it! I also crushed my goal of doing it in an hour. So here are some scary no make-up race day pictures, but I want to remember this forever, it meant so much to me to do it and to have my family there supporting me.

Now I need to go get out of this bed cause Jeremy and I are going on a date. I am feeling a little sore, so I don't know how adventurous our date of grocery shopping will be, but at least we will get some time together. Oh and another cool thing about today is that our sister Brigette Devey Matheson had her 3rd child, Dash this morning! What a great day!

Congrats Brigette and Wade on your new addition Dash, what a cutie!

2012-01-07T08:45:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year Family and Friends!

The biggest change for the Devey family in 2011 was a move to Logan, Utah. Ali got a job teaching at Utah State University in a program teaching deaf children how to speak and listen with the use of cochlear implants and hearing aids. She also trains graduate students who are entering the fields of Deaf Education, Speech Pathology, and Audiology. She submitted proposals to both the EDHI Convention and the AG Bell Convention and both of her presentation proposals were accepted, so she will be presenting in St. Louis in March and then in Phoenix in July, she is excited, but quite nervous as well! She loves living in Logan and surprisingly the cold temps have not bothered her a bit. Her hobbies this year have been swimming in the mornings before work, going with Jeremy to the Logan temple once a week, and spending time with her family.

Jeremy has loved Utah as well. He has developed a couple of hobbies this year that has been great for him. Due to his seizures, he has not been driving for several months, so he has become an avid walker. Some days he will walk to my work (9 miles). He has the bus system down and always has interesting stories to share regarding public transportation. He enjoys making bows and arrows; it is somewhat therapeutic for him. He started a diet for epilepsy this year, it regulates the ketones in his body and seems to be helping with his seizures, not to mention his weight, he has lost 70 pounds since August! He also enjoys fishing, hiking, and spending time with his family!

Skyler is almost 12 years old. He started middle school this year and loving it! He has made a ton of friends in our neighborhood and is so happy not to deal with the bullies he had in Yuma, he does however miss his best friend Jordan a ton! He still loves catching bugs, snakes, frogs, etc. He recently began taking piano lessons and is picking it up quickly. He is also big on exercising; he is constantly doing push-ups and sit-ups and has quite the little 6-pack going on. He has developed a love for sarcasm this year and is always making us laugh! He is such a good boy and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

Makenzie will be 9 years old in February, my baby has grown up. It seems like just yesterday she was born and now she is already in the 3^rd grade. She is doing fabulous in school; her reading is off the charts. She loves reading the scriptures at night as a family and we are amazed at how she reads all the big words without even a pause. She is doing dance and piano this year and enjoys it so much! She was baptized last February and looked like a little angel in her white dress! This February she will be on a panel for Utah’s chapter of Hands and Voices discussing her hearing loss and answering questions; she is very excited! She is quite a little advocate for her hearing loss and even ran a booth at a USU audiology convention this year about cochlear implants. We are very proud of her; she has a lot of sass and a strong personality. She loves helping her mama out, giving pedicures, and driving her brother crazy! We love her so much!

We hope your 2012 adventures are great, that you will be blessed with health and prosperity! We love you all and feel so blessed to have our family, friends, and the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. Happy New Years!

Love,

Jeremy, Ali, Skyler, & MaKenzie Devey

A Day Out With Skyler

2012-01-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Kenzie recently had a play day with her friend Amanda, so Jeremy, Skyler and I went to Skylor's pond at Willow park. They were naughty and walked on the pond, just around the edge. Jeremy thought he would demonstrate great manliness by standing barefoot on the ice. It was Skyler's first time on a frozen pond. It has been an odd Logan winter so far. As you can see from the picts, NO SNOW! As I type this post though, the snow is coming down in buckets outside, so winter is finally back :)

Happy 34th

2012-01-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

Just a shout out for the love of my life. He recently celebrated his 34th birthday. We decorated the house and made homemade french toast with strawberries and whipped cream and syrup. Mmm it was so good. We cheated on our diets that day. After breakfast he opened his presents and then we relaxed a bit. He and I went and saw Sherlock Holmes at the theater and ate our weight in popcorn. Then we got pizza for dinner and watched the New Years Eve ball drop with the kids. It was such a fun day. I did have some moments of sadness thinking about New Years Eve back when I was 11 years old and I saw my dad for the last time in this life. I know that he is in a better place though and anxiously awaiting the day when our family can be together again. How grateful I am for the knowledge of the gospel and knowing that our families can be together forever. Happy New Years everyone!

Jeremy on his 34th birthday!

My handsome man!

A Yuma Christmas

2012-01-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

What an amazing Christmas we had this year. The kids last day of school before break, we picked them up and headed to Yuma. Throughout the drive we shed our coats, pants, boots and exchanged for flip flops and "Yuma" attire. It was such an awesome time. We loved spending time with Jeremy's family. I also loved getting to spend time with my "adopted" family the Nuttalls. A highlight of the trip was playing Just Dance 3 on the Wii with Jeremy's parents! A few other highlights included:

-Going to lunch with my former boss and friend, Kim Kosmata.

-Christmas Eve with a ton of Jeremy's relatives coming over.

-Hearing about Jeremy's grandma's childhood Christmases.

-Going to the Wetlands park with Grandma,cousins, and friends.

-A beautiful Sacrament service on Christmas morning.

- Chili Pepper of course...

-Lunch with my best friend Shelly Nuttall Harris!

-Watching Skyler and his best friend Jordan having so much fun together!

-75 degree temperatures!

-Just getting to relax and enjoy my family!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed to have Christ in our lives! The kids also seemed to really focus more on the true meaning of Christmas this year. They were also happy to get what they wanted for Christmas from Santa, a trampoline for the family. Kenz got Cookie the dog, and Skyler got tablet/mp3 thing. Merry Christmas!

Enjoying a little shade at the Wetlands park!

My little sweet kiddos!

Alison and Jeremy

Granny talking about Christmas as a child, we love her so much!

Grandma and Grandpa Devey playing Just Dance 3, so incredibly awesome!

Hardest Day EVER for Kenz

2011-11-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

So to keep this LITTLE kid friendly, I will not go into too many details, but Kenzie came into my room asking a very important question about Christmas and specifics about it..... She is now almost 9 and I didn't feel right side-stepping her question, so I answered her tenderly and expressed my love for her. We talked about the importance and the real reason for Christmas. She completely lost it, sobbing wildly and saying that her life was "RUINED FOREVER!" She wanted to have amnesia so that she would "never remember the worst day of her life." After sobbing for a while, it hit her that there were a few other things that she inadvertently learned were not as she had thought (involving loose teeth and colorful eggs). This sent her spiraling into the depths of despair. I knew when she "learned" it would be extremely hard on her since she is the queen of magical lands and pretending mermaids and fairies exist. It took several hours before she was able to get herself under control. I tried every strategy I could think of to help her get excited about Christmas and being a part of the "magic" now. Anyways, Jeremy and I still remember how we found out and how heartbroken we were, so I wanted to document a little of Kenzie's experience for her to share with her children one day. Here she is in her time of sadness, this was one of my saddest times as a parent so far, she was crushed beyond belief. On a happier note, she had a VERY special experience in the bathroom after the sad morning. To some it may sound silly, but to us it was incredible. I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day, she was sitting on the floor crying and just saying over and over, "I need there to be more" the second she said that the lights in our bathroom turned off and came back on. She immediately went silent and said, "did you see what I just saw?" I definitely did, she said she thought it was a sign from Heavenly Father letting her know that magic/miracles are still around us. That was all it took and she was happy and felt privileged to have had that experience the rest of the day. I had to pray and give thanks for that as well because I was out of ideas to help her feel better. She has been fine ever since.

Happy 33rd to Me!

2011-11-27T13:27:00.000-08:00

So this year I didn't dread my birthday thinking of the finals I had coming up, or the papers I had to write. Instead this year I happily welcomed in the day (yay for being done with college)! I awoke to Jeremy and the kids making breakfast for me. The kids informed me I could not leave my room for a bit, so I locked myself in the bathroom and took a bath and read a book until I heard them say it was safe to come out. I came out to find posters hung near the ceiling they had made wishing me a happy birthday! They also had their presents wrapped and on the table. We ate together and they anxiously watched as I opened their precious gifts. Skyler bought me a pottery egg at school from his art teacher, he saved up his 50 cents to do so, then he painted it himself and wrote a message for me on it (So Sweet, I have always wanted to have a golden egg, now I do). Kenzie bought me a soap dish from the dollar store with her own money too, I love it! Jeremy got me a wallet since my last one kicked the bucket a while ago. Gotta have a place to put my mountains of cash, right ;) After I got ready for the day, we picked up one of Kenzie's friends and went to the park for a bit, the kids had a blast playing princesses, Skyler was such a sport and agreed to be the villian who hunted the princesses. It was all fun until a certain princess took it a little too far and kicked her brother, the villian, in the chest leaving a huge painful, shoeprint. He couldn't breath for a moment and couldn't help but cry. That was our cue to take Kenzie's friend home and come home ourselves. After the apology, Kenz and Skyler were back to being buddies again (he is soooooo patient with her). We came home and dropped the kids off and went and saw the movie Breaking Dawn, it was the first movie we have seen in a year. It was a lot of fun, we ate our weight in popcorn, and enjoyed every piece! After the movie we came home and played UNO with the kids and they ate dinner, we were too full from the popcorn. Then we had cake and watched Captain America, it was a great birthday! I feel so blessed to be where I am and with the people I am with. Life definitely has it's challenges, but those challenges bring us closer together and closer to our Savior. I can truthfully say "Life is Good!"

Fuzzy picture of me blowing out my candles

My pretty cake!

Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

This has been the funnest Thanksgiving vacation of all time! Yes, we definitely missed our family members, but we had such a bonding weekend. Tuesday we had our Thanksgiving Feast at Sound Beginnings with our students, then of course we got to bring a ton of leftovers home, so my family feasted that night as well. Since the temple was going to be closed on our usual Wednesday night, Jeremy and I did our session Tuesday night instead. It was wonderful. Jeremy had some big doctors appointments on Wednesday that were a bit stressful and draining, but they ended up being good in the long run. Wednesday night we stayed up late with the kids and had a fun movie night and played games. Thursday we woke up and ate a family breakfast then watched the Thanksgiving parade, had wrestling matches, played Farkel, UNO, and Phase 10. We also did something we have never done before, we went out to eat for Thanksgiving dinner, it was quite busy at Golden Corral, but it was soooo good and the kids had a blast eating their hearts out at the desert bar! Jeremy and I were tough and didn't even cheat on our diets, but we got to eat some good food though, so it didn't bother us. After a great dinner, we came home and played more games, watched a movie, and got our kids to bed. Then I was privileged to take Jeremy on his first Black Friday experience ever. We went to Walmart and Shopko. We got pretty much everything we were hoping to get there. For those of you who know Jeremy, he is not a crowd person AT ALL. He about had a nervous breakdown (literally) but he had fun regardless and can't wait to do it again next year! We had such a fun family day! It was definitely a day to reflect on the many blessings we have to be Thankful for!

Skyler's snowman, notice the no shoes, no shirt, I had to reprimand him for running out like this, what a silly, tough boy. Trust me, he was clothed when he made the snowman, only during the picture did he run out like this.

Skyler took this picture of us on Thanksgiving, I love my Jeremy so much!

In line at Golden Corral

Shopping, Play, and Girls Day!

2011-11-20T11:37:00.001-08:00

So Makenzie had $20.00 from the sale of something on ebay. She was so excited to go Christmas shopping with her money. I thought for sure she would end up just spending it on herself, but she was so excited to buy her family gifts. She picked out presents for Dad and Skyler and then had me wait at the check-out stand while she grabbed something she had in mind for me. She gave the lady her money, paid for it, and then hid the bag behind her back. In the car she busted out with a beef stick for both of us and said, "Hey, mom, these are for us to eat and enjoy right now." The only thing she bought for herself other than the beef stick was a bag of M&Ms and a small cucumber face mask pouch. She She kept saying how she wished she had a ton of money and could buy me anything I wanted. She said that I always spoil her and Skyler and that it was her turn to spoil me. It was very sweet. I guess she knows how I feel now. I would love to buy presents for everyone I know, and shower my friends and family with gifts to help them know how much I care about them. Unfortunately, our pocketbook does not lend well to that. Oh well...after our shopping around town, we went to Sams Club and looked around and picked up trash bags and ate lunch. Later in the evening, Kenzie and I gathered up some can food to donate to the food pantry here in Logan and then went and watched a really fun play that a member of our ward wrote and produced. Kenzie absolutely LOVED it, it was a lot of fun! When the play ended we hurried to our car, it had gotten very cold over those two hours, it was only 7 degrees outside, brrrrrr. I had a great day with my little lady, I am so sad that she is growing up sooo fast, the things she thinks about and says are so mature now. Well most of it, she is also a little inappropriate at times. For instance, when I took a pie to our neighbors who came and cleared our driveway during the night she had one of those moments. I gave the man a pie and said thanks and talked to him outside in the driveway for about 1 minute or so. When I got in the car she says, "Mom are you and that man in love? I think you guys might love each other or something, you were both smiling and talking." I assured her I was not in love with anyone other than her sweet dad and that I would never be alone with another man, to which she replied well you were alone in the driveway.... She also thinks her young SLP at school and the older audiologist who collaborates with the SLP on her behalf are in love, I tell her they are both happily married and that the man could be the SLPs dad. She is such a funny girl, I think she has seen a little too many Nick and Disney channel shows. Oh and then today Jeremy and I were goofing around in the kitchen just being dorks and she was staring at us and says, watching the two of you makes me imagine being married to a man and in my own kitchen someday. She is in this "dreamy" phase right now and it makes us laugh all the time. I told her to enjoy being a kid and not worry about getting married for a VERY long time. They seriously grow up WAY too fast. Anyways, Kenz and I had a great mom/daughter day, I can't wait to take Skyler on our mom/son date next week! There is nothing better in this whole world than having a family to love and one who loves you "to the moon and back!" I have sooooo many things to be thankful for in my life!

A shot of the play we went to, "The Trouble With Pancakes"

Upcoming Adventures

2011-11-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

I got an email on Thursday that my abstract I submitting to EDHI (Early Detection Hearing Intervention) was accepted. I am so excited and quite nervous. The conference is this March in Missouri. The email said:

Dear Alison Devey,

Thank you for submitting an abstract for the 2012 Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Meeting. We received many excellent abstracts this year and are excited to have a great line-up of posters and breakout presentations. We are very pleased to inform you that your abstract, 'Parents becoming professional providers for children with hearing loss: a dual perspective', has been accepted as a 30 minute presentation for this year's meeting. We will not be sending a notice to your co-presenters, so please forward this message to them.Your presentation is scheduled as follows:

Date: Tuesday March 06, 2012

Time: 9:40 AM - 10:10 AM

Room: Missouri Pacific

*Another cool thing is that Kenzie has been asked to sit on a panel of children with hearing loss and answer questions about her hearing loss, cochlear implant, life, etc. That is for Utah Hands and Voices held in SLC. She is also very excited about this!

Girls Day!

2011-11-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

A co-worker of mine wanted to take my boss Stacy and me and go on a day trip to Salt Lake city. I was hesitant at first to go because I didn't want to leave Jeremy and the kids on my day off. I had decided not to go, but when I told Jeremy he told me that I really needed to go and get to know the people I work with better and just have some fun. So, since he was encouraging me to go, Saturday morning at 8:30 our trip began. It was rainy and awful weather when we left Logan, but SLC was clear and cool. First we went to Gardner Village which was this "mall" of sorts. There were many outdoor old looking homes, but each one was a special store. We walked around looking at all the fun stuff, eating hot bread with cheese on it, mmmm (I made yesterday my cheat day). As we left the outdoor Gardner Village, snow began to fall. Next, we went to Tai Pan and shopped around. I have to say the cold weather, the snow falling outside, the Christmas music playing, and everything all decked out in Christmas decor sure made me excited and happy! I love the Christmas season so much! After Tai Pan we ate an awesome lunch at Pei Wei! Janet bought Stacy and I a small bundt cake from Every Thing Bundt Cake, oh my goodness, it was amazing! Then when we were done there we headed over to Overstock .com, there was not much there, it is one of those "hit and miss" stores. Then we headed over to the mall so Stacy could get a new iPhone from the Apple store. While she was phone shopping, Janet and I had fun shopping around the Anne Taylor loft, it was their grand opening so everything was 40% off, they had servers walking around in suits with trays of glasses of water and lemonade on them. They also had a professional DJ there livening the place up, it was funny to see that in the mall. Our last mall stop was at Sees Candy, mmm that was the first candy I have tasted in like a month, it was delicious. After the mall we took Stacy on a tour of downtown SLC, my favorite part was definitely the SLC temple, it is just absolutely breathtaking. Then we made a final stop at Johnny Cappuchis (I think that was the name???) Janet needed some authentic Italian food to take home. She bought rolls, special cheese, olives, and salami. It was a pretty cool place, it felt like the kind of store you would find in NYC or Chicago. It was fun chatting all day with adults and I only spent 10 bucks, BONUS! I love ALL my co-workers, they are such great people and they make my job so much fun! I feel so blessed to be able to live and work here in Logan.

View from the car of the Salt Lake City temple

Janet in one of the cute chairs in Gardner Village

*A special thanks to Janet for touring us around SLC and spoiling us as well, it was so much fun. On another note, it dumped snow in Logan, our basketball hoop fell over and literally was within 2 inches of my bosses car that she left parked in my driveway, that was definitely a close call...

First Snow and Visitors

2011-11-06T16:59:00.001-08:00

So we experienced a few firsts this week. We had our first Logan snow, our first experience shoveling a driveway and deck, our children's first snowball fight, our first Logan snowman, the first time my brother came to visit us in Logan, and our dog Annie's first time ever in the snow. Friday night we spent an awesome evening with Uncle Sam and Grandma Sharon. Mom took us all to Golden Corral for dinner, it was quite delicious! The reason mom and Sam were here is they flew down earlier this week to attend the funeral of our dear family friend Kelly Panter who passed away unexpectedly. That was a heart wrenching funeral to attend, such a special man who left behind 8 brothers and sisters, his parents, his gorgeous wife and 4 children. Our prayers have definitely been in behalf of his sweet family. Friday night as we were getting the kiddos to bed, we were so excited to look out the window and see the beautiful white snowflakes. The kids about jumped out of their skin with excitement. Kenzie set her stool by the back door and just watched it for about an hour, I overheard her telling her dad that it was the "most magical moment of her entire life." Having our Christmas decorations up just made it even more "magical." I honestly don't know how people can see all of God's amazing creations and deny that he exists. Saturday morning we woke up to several inches of gorgeous snow, then the fun really began. Skyler and Kenzie were literally outside from sun-up till sun-down. The nice thing was it wasn't that cold outside once the sun came up. We loved it, but I found myself wondering how soon it would be until the newness wore off. I was definitely not a fan of the several pairs of wet pants and socks I kept finding as the kids would come home for something, change their clothes, and then be gone again. Even with the frustration from the extra laundry, it was the perfect day. The memories they are making will last them a lifetime. Uncle Sam bought a couple of Papa Murphy's pizzas for dinner and instantly gained hero status in the eyes our kids. We adults played several games of Phase 10 and Farkle and sipped our hot chocolate and herbal teas, it was a GREAT day! I am so glad my family got to come visit for a few days, the time just went way too fast.

Annie was not a fan of the snow!

Our kids were HUGE fans!

I LOVE SNOW!!!!!!!!

Our little snowman Martin!

Deck almost cleared off, what strong guys!

Jacket shopping at the crack of dawn...hence the sleepy eyes!

My Love!

Me, Mom, and Sam

Our little family!

Halloween

2011-11-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

Last week we had our first Halloween here in Utah, it was so much fun! The kids each told me that they thought it was the best Halloween they had ever had. Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary, but they had great fun at school. They ate mummy hot dogs for dinner. Kenzie dressed up as a Utah State Aggie cheerleader. Skyler dressed up as a vampire. Jeremy was Gumby and I was a bumblebee. It was kind of funny because Jeremy and I wore the same costumes we wore 12 years ago on our first Halloween as husband and wife. The kids and I went with several other kids from around the neighborhood and trick-or-treated till their buckets were full. Kenzie and I were invited to a back yard where they were frying up fresh homemade scones and had hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun! Also earlier in the day at my school we also had a ton of fun with our Halloween trick-or-treating, goodies, stories, crafts, pinata, and the cutest little Deaf and Hard of Hearing kiddos around!

Pumpkin carving with the family!

Our pumpkins with the cochlear implants. I just realized my shirt has something wet all over it, nice..

Our pumpkins lit up!

Here is the picture of us from 12 years ago, before he cut the face out of Gumby!

Where has the time gone, it feels like just yesterday that last picture took place!

That is the picture of my stinger taking Mr. Gumby down!

My handsome vampire, "Edward" has nothing on this kid!

My little Utah State Aggie fan!

Beautiful MaKenzie!

Trick-or-treating with neighbors!

Me and my super cute pumpkin (don't worry, her mom sent me this pict on FB, I have permission to share it).

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!

Skyler's Last Primary Program

2011-10-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today was bitter sweet as I watched Skyler say his part into the microphone and sing the primary songs. It seems like just yesterday he was old enough to enter the nursery, then he was a Sunbeam who would put his mouth right on the microphone and cause everyone to cringe and giggle as he spoke his part way to loudly. Then a few years later came his baptism, and now he is less than a year away from receiving the priesthood and entering the Young Men's program. Where has the time gone, when did my little man grow up. It makes me so scared as I look back on the past 11 1/2 years of his life, they have come and gone so fast, he will be turning 19 and going on a mission before I know it. I am not ready for my kids to grow up. I am so proud of him. He is such a great boy. All the younger boys in this neighborhood look up to Skyler so much. They love that he will catch bugs, frog, and snakes for them. I love sitting out front with Jeremy and watching him and his friends riding their scooters and bikes all over the place. I love it here in Logan, but as I have said before, even if I hated it, the move would still be worth it to see him so happy! I was also so proud of Kenzie up there saying her part in the microphone. This year the kids were given a topic and had to write down what they wanted to say, Skyler spoke about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the church. Kenzie wrote, "Jesus Christ was resurrected and we will be too. It makes me so interested and grateful to know that I will be resurrected one day just like Jesus." I loved hearing the children's sweet testimonies, I am a big baby and can't keep the tears from coming when I feel the Spirit. There is nothing that brings those tender feelings to my heart like hearing the sweet testimonies of little children. Kenzie was trying so hard to sing the primary songs, she was staring at me the whole time since I would over enunciate the words and she would be able to follow along with what was being sung. She really struggles to hear the words of the songs, her microphones on her CI and HA just make everything louder, so she hears everything sort of run together, but she tries her best to keep up and follow along. I love my kids so much, I am so blessed to have such sweet, silly, noble children in my home! Good job guys, mom and dad were so proud of you both!

Life this Week

2011-10-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

So, my new goal is to designate a little time on Sunday afternoons to update my blog. I let the busy hustle and bustle of life get in the way at times. There are so many great memories that I would have forgotten if I didn't have my blog books to look back on. I know that there are great times that have occurred that I will never remember since I neglected to document them. It is sad, my kids remember so many things that I don't, I hate how the memory is not as sharp anymore. I feel like I am getting old... So I will recap a few of the highlights from this past week:

Last Sunday: Baking Halloween cupcakes with the kids. We took some to our neighbor who is about my age with two young boys. She is battling two forms of cancer. I look at her and wonder how she can do it everyday. She is a strong example to me of enduring through the trials of life and trying to keep a positive outlook. So often we get lost in our own trials and neglect to see how many others are suffering so much. We also took cupcakes to one of the widows in our ward who we have grown to love. I love that my kids kept wanting to give more and more of their cupcakes away. I pray that they continue to develop Christlike attributes and know that life is not all about ourselves; that it feels so much better to give than to receive. We also spent Sunday evening playing charades, we each wrote down 10 things to act out. It was so funny, I don't know the last time when we all laughed so hard as a family. The highlight was Skyler acting out getting a "swirly," we couldn't figure it out, but we sure came up with a lot of creative guesses.

Monday: I woke up and swam laps at the college. Then we did the whole, work/school thing. After I got home at 5pm, we had dinner and Kenzie gave a lesson for FHE on prayer and we painted prayer rocks. Then we went for a run. The kids rode scooters to the elementary school and began tether ball competition. Jeremy and I ran two miles and then met up with the kids and showed them how tether ball is done, well kinda, they did hold their own pretty well and Jeremy and I were wiped out from the run.

Tuesday: Swimming, work, school, dinner, family scriptures and prayer, and we watched the Biggest Loser. Our new thing is to be doing push-ups, sit-ups, and any manner of exercise while we watch the show. It's pretty fun!

Wednesday: Swimming, work, school, dinner, family scripts and prayer, then Jeremy and I went to the Logan temple for our session. The kids did great playing together and were in bed when we got home. It is such a special break/date for Jeremy and I to get to escape the world and feel the sweet peace the gospel brings.

Thursday: Here in Logan we get 2 days off for fall break, so we were busy Thursday doing things that needed done. Jeremy and I had medical records to track down, notrizations to get done so he could receive those medical records, cars cleaned, laundry started, kids played with friends, and Skyler learned a valuable lesson which I will not write about, but he definitely learned a lesson.

Friday: The kids helped with the lawn. Then they spent a good majority of the day playing here and there with their friends in the neighborhood. Kenzie gave me a spa day complete with a pedicure, manicure, and singing. She is such a funny girl. Then we met at the church to practice for the primary program on Sunday. After running through the program, I helped serve brownie/cookie sundaes. The kids were in HEAVEN! Then Skyler had his buddy Brighton come over to hang out. Jeremy and I hung out with Kenzie in our room watching Nick shows on TV. It was a fun day!

Saturday: We got our chores done and spent the morning at the coolest park ever! We played countless rounds of hide n seek and just enjoyed the day. A few unattended kids were being a bit obnoxious, they were swinging as high as they could and then kicking their shoes off clear across the playground. They seriously almost hit 3 different babies. Since we were pushing our kids on the swings, we felt obligated to get them to stop. They didn't listen to me, so Jeremy says, "Hey I am a park administrator and I would hate to ask you boys to leave, but you are going to hurt someone." They looked at him and took him seriously till Kenz says, "Daddy you are not a park administrator, are you lying?" We about lost it, I chimed in that he was like a park administrator because he was a parent volunteer obligated to uphold the safety at the park. Needless to say they stopped, it was pretty funny! We wrapped up our day with watching my bosses daughter while they went on a date. The boys watched transformers while the girls played, giggled, and made a bakery out of playdough. They really wanted me to find a camera so I could record them like they were on the TV show Cake Boss, it was cute! It was a great week, nothing grand or significant, just the day to day things filling our lives.

Summer Fun!

2011-10-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Beware of five million picts... Family pict on the hiking trail

Skyler Killed his toe...OUCH!
Kenz and I got hair cuts
Kenz and I presented at an audiology conference at USU, she was the star of the show on Cochlear Implants!
Tiffany and Suzette Panter at Shane Panter's wedding
Last hike before school starts
Kids on their first day of school, notice Kenzie's crying eyes
Waiting on the parade to begin in downtown Logan
Skyler and a few of his new friends he caught
Kenzie rolled 6 5's in Farkle, we were pretty excited!
Ward tug-o war
Visiting Papa Kent's grave in Coalville

Me and my boy
Kenz and Grandma Sharon
Playing in the park after the Farmer's Market
Dad and Kenz horseback riding
Copying statues :)
Skyler's 11th birthday
Logan, Utah temple
Hyrum Resevoir
My LOVES
My tree climbing boy

Kenzie Rapelling
Getting ready for dinner at the Biddulph family camp out
So again since I let my blog go for several months, it would take me about that long to blog about all the fun things we got to do this summer, so I am going to take a minute and just make a list. I wish I had time to include all the details, but at least my kids can read this list and hopefully remember the fun times. Aside from the move, little money was spent, just a ton of togetherness and community events! So here is goes:

Swimming in the gorgeous Hyrum Reservoir
Watermelon eating contests
Tons of face painting
Long hikes up the Logan Canyon River Trail
A number of different parades (Nibley Heritage days, Pioneer Day, 4th of July, Paradise Parade, Labor Day Parade, USU Homecoming Parade) Bags of candy have been caught and consumed...
Fireworks galore for about a month straight
Goodies delivered to us from thoughtful neighbors
Biddulph family reunion(great food, games, boating/tubing, rappelling, and warm sunshine)
Jeremy and Skyler rode with Wayne to Phoenix for Timmy and Katie Devey's wedding
Bradley's missionary farewell to Brazil (good luck to one of the coolest young men around)
Several overnight visits from my mommy! (which meant late night foot rubs, conversation, tons of Farkle, and fun)
My best childhood friend Shelly Nuttall Harris and her family stopped by for a visit
Aunt Jeanie and her boys Spencer and Danny spent a few days
Weekly trips to the Logan temple (Oh how that has blessed our lives)
Nights around the fire pit roasting marshmallows
Running into competitors from the Biggest Loser Rulon and Justin on several occasions
Getting to have a couple meals with Wayne & Michelle Devey and their kiddos
Skyler's 11th birthday (He is growing up way too fast, I love my buddy)
Eating Aggie Ice cream (well a couple times, it is a bit pricey, but oh so good)
Planting a garden (we had many spaghetti squash, strawberries, tomatoes, one VERY tiny watermelon, and one stalk of corn that somehow got into our garden??? )
Family Fun Fridays (with board games, movies, and popcorn)
Swimming at the USU gym for free (Yay for university perks)
Backyard camp outs
Horseback riding at Karl White's house (Head of NCHAM at USU)
Farmer's market at the park
Catching frogs at Skylor's pond (No fish, but plenty of huge frogs, don't worry they were not eaten)
Skyler and his snake catching frenzy in the ditch (he brought home 4 unhappy snakes in one afternoon)
Starting a special diet with Jeremy and exercising with him each night, well that started in September, current pictures will come once we notice a difference...
Oh and one of the most special thing has been watching my kids make TONS of neighborhood friends, they would be gone from sun-up till sun-down if we would let them. They rotate between our house and about 4 other houses having SO much fun!

Well that about covers our summer, it has definitely been our favorite summer since we got married 12 years ago.

Where to Begin

2011-10-16T11:48:00.001-07:00

Oops a sideways view of our backyard
Kenz working getting the garden ready
Kenz ready for her first Sunday in our new ward (Maple Valley Ward)
Jeremy washing the car at our new home~
Sound Beginnings my new second home and workplace

So a TON has happened since my last post. Many life changing events have occurred. I applied for a job up in Utah at a Deaf Oral Ed school called Sound Beginnings. It is located in a gorgeous building on the Utah State University campus. It was a very great opportunity, I would work with the DHH kiddos as well as the graduate students at USU. I was hesitant to apply, but Jeremy had a feeling I should look for jobs in Utah, Sound Beginnings immediately came to mind since I had heard such wonderful things from them from colleagues I had worked with in Phoenix at Kenzie's school. I had also been asked to send a resume up to SB long before I ever applied. I did not do it because I really did love my students in Yuma and all of my co-workers, and with Jeremy having been so sick over the past couple of years, I didn't even think moving was a possibility. However, after a little prayer, everything immediately fell into place. I officially submitted my application and was contacted right away. I had a phone interview with several people from SB and was told I would be contacted in a few days about the possibility of flying up to UT for a face-to-face interview. After the stressful thirty to forty-five minute phone interview with the room full of people, I hung up the phone and was shaking like a leaf. I told myself at that moment that everything would go however the Lord wanted it to. I said a prayer of thanks for not totally going blank during the process and right as I said "amen" the phone rang telling me they were VERY interested in me and would like to fly me up to Logan to meet them in person. So that was when the whole whirlwind began. This was back in May and I was still teaching and hadn't said a word about anything to my sweet boss Kim Kosmata, we really had a strong relationship and I was scared to death to tell her about the possible job. I figured out that if I took one day off from school I could manage flying to UT and back without being suspicious. That day I couldn't shake the thought that I needed to tell her that I was applying for another job. I wanted her to start thinking about it so that it wouldn't just be me giving my two weeks notice if I did in fact get the job. So I sat down and let her know, tears were shed by both of us, but I assured her nothing was certain, she told me that once they met me I would get the job (such a confidence booster). So after flying to UT, I went to breakfast with the head of the NCHAM department and the director of Sound Beginnings. I ate one egg and tried hard not to throw up right then and there. I knew it was going to be a long day. So I ended up meeting the staff at SB, the speech therapists, audiologists, the professors, more people from NCHAM, each person had several minutes alone with me to ask me questions and basically get an opinion of me. Then I was able to meet the students and lead an activity with them. During my time with the students, the staff watched me from the observation room (talk about intimidating) Oh and you are also on video 24/7 there for research purposes with the grad students and NCHAM center, I was a nervous wreck. My day went well though and before hurrying to catch my flight back to AZ they told me they really liked me and would offer me the job on the spot, but out of fairness, they had to honor their last few interview appointments. So after my mom drove me to the airport, it was back to AZ to finish out my last IEPs for the year and start wrapping things up. I knew we would be switching classrooms at Desert Mesa, so it wasn't odd that I was packing up the stuff I wouldn't be using the rest of the year. On the second to last day of school, I got the call from Sound Beginnings asking me to join their team and consider their offer. It was so exciting and scary at the same time. I told my boss and again tears were shed, but she was absolutely wonderful, she took me out for lunch, gave me a nice graduation card and going away gift of 3 Willow Tree angels. My time working with her and the rest of the staff from Arizona State Schools For the Deaf and Blind will stay with me forever. To make a long story short, we packed up, mom came and helped me deep clean our house, and we moved to Utah 2 weeks later. Jeremy's dad Wayne drove the U-haul up for us since Jeremy is not supposed to drive with his seizure disorder. It was great having Wayne there as we traveled. We stayed the night in St. George at Jeremy's sister Dru's house, the kids had a blast playing with their cousins. Dru even gave us an awesome bunk bed for Makenzie's room! Oh and I almost killed Kenzie's fish twice during our move, transferring him into a cup of water for the long drive, he fell into the disposal and I was reaching all around for him, thankfully he happened to jump into my hand. The next day as we stopped for lunch on our trip, we went into McDonalds and ate, I completely forgot about him there in my cup holder. If you are familiar with AZ, you know that your car gets was over 120 degrees when it is shut up there in the sun, I got to the car and he was floating at the top of the glass in the hot water. So I quickly threw ice cubes in the glass and after a few minutes he began to swim again....(Poor "Jimmy" that is Kenzie's Beta's name). All in all we made it to Utah the next day and we have been in Heaven ever since! Here is the building where I work!

Drum Roll Please........

2011-05-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

My visiting teachers had my house key and were taking care of my dog and left this for me, so sweet, thanks Mona Hawes and Stephanie Bybee!

Dr. Antia, me, Dr. Kreimeyer, and Kenzie jumped in this picture as well!

My favorite pict of all time, I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Me and my angel mother!

We did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love my Jeremy more than words can express! He is such a trooper!

I was surprised by how proud my kids were, I didn't think they would care...tear...

My fan club waiting! Jeremy was behind the camera~

Dr. Shirin Antia, me, and another of my professors, Dr. Kathryn Kreimeyer~

So this has been a momentous day in the Devey household! I can officially say I am finished with college, for the time being! I am actually contemplating going back to get my PhD, but I am trying to push that thought aside for at least a semester or two!

So the fun began yesterday afternoon as I took the kids out of school early and we drove up to my mom's house in Queen Creek. Once we got there, mom had turkey burgers ready for dinner, so we ate and visited for a bit, then Jeremy and the kids went swimming while mom and I went shopping, (happy graduation to me). My mom is just an angel, which if you have ever met her you would agree 100%. She bought me a couple of new outfits to celebrate my graduation and to get me ready for an upcoming job interview that I have on the 23rd. It was so fun having some "mommy time." The kids had an absolute blast swimming and fell asleep right after we got back to moms. Then mom and I drove over to my sister's house to visit with her for a little bit, that was a lot of fun too, her kids were in bed and it allowed us time to just talk.

After we got back to mom's we tried to settle down and get to sleep, but it was well after midnight and 3:45 am came very early this morning. Thank goodness the kids got enough sleep because we adults sure didn't. Mom still woke up early enough to have hot cinnamon rolls ready for breakfast. When we arrived in Tucson at the University of Arizona, the excitement finally kicked in. I was actually graduating!!!!!! I also got to sport the very unflattering graduation gown! As most of you know the past few years have been extremely difficult for our little family with Jeremy and his health issues and me having to work full-time and be enrolled in a graduate program full-time as well. There have been countless prayers offered on our behalf from so many amazing people along the way. I have gone on very little sleep every night since the Spring of 2009, I have shed a few tears along the way, but I can finally say it was all worth it and I have grown leaps and bounds through all this craziness.

I have to thank my in-laws, my mom, husband, and kids for always supporting me 100%, for being so patient and understanding when I was unable to read "just one more story" at bedtime, or when I had to travel to Tucson for course work. I could never have done this without them. Jeremy has been so selfless and really stepped up to the plate and been the best husband and father EVER! My mom literally stayed with my kiddos during the week for a whole month when I had to stay at her house in Phoenix for an ASL course. She lived here during the week for more than two months while I had to be at work and Jeremy was at his worst with his seizures. I couldn't have held it all together without her. I am so blessed to have had them cheering me forward every step of the way.

I feel like today is going to be the beginning of new life for us, I know it sounds a little cliche, but I really do. Jeremy is doing quite a bit better, I am being flown to Utah next week for a really great job interview at Utah State University working in a deaf oral ed program. I will miss my students here in Yuma, they have come a long way, but I have to think about what is best for my family now. I can't wait to see where this next chapter of this journey takes us! Oh and one more silly thing to add that I want to look back on and remember about this day is that Skyler has called me "Master Mom" all day long, he cracks me up! So all I have left to say is YAY for graduating!

Kenzie's Birthday and Baptism

2011-02-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

Makenzie and Granny after her baptism.

Makenzie, Kendalyn, and Emily Makenzie and her best friend in the whole world, Kendalyn!

Makenzie and Daddy getting ready for her baptism~

Mom, Dad, and Kenzie right before her baptism~

Grandpa and Grandma Devey and Kenzie on her special day.

Our beautiful girl~

Kenzie and her daddy~

Jeremy(33), Alison((32), Skyler(10), and MaKenzie(8)

Mom, Dad, and Kenzie

Grandma Sharon and MaKenzie on her big day!

Pretty girl~

So this was Makenzie's most anticipated birthday ever because she knew it meant she can finally get baptized! For her birthday, she brought muffins to school for her classmates. She also got to pick where she wanted to go for dinner. She chose Golden Corral. She was so funny, she called it a "food paradise." She didn't eat much though for being so excited about it! The following day her Grandma drove to Yuma for a visit, Kenzie had a birthday party with her friends. Samantha, Brynn, Remi, Emily, Meagan, and Riley, came over in their pajamas and ate pizza, played Gestures, and a getting to know you game. They then ate popcorn and watched the Tinkerbell movie. Then of course we had cake and ice cream to top off the night before the girls parents picked them up. She was super excited and had a great time. Her only bummer of the day was her very best friend Kendalyn couldn't come because she was very sick. So after her friends went home, we took Kendalyn and her sisters a goodie bags, and a cake. Her birthday was February 3rd, her "Child of Record" baptism was today, February 19th, 2011. Her mom and uncle Sam came down for the day. Aunt Brigette came with her two children. She had several friends and families at the church to witness her special day. She was so excited to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. It was a beautiful day, it started out very rainy and yucky, but by the time her baptism rolled around, the sun had come out, and it was a gorgeous day. After her baptism, we had donut holes and brownies outside and then we went to Grandma Devey's house for an amazing dinner, they smoked a turkey, pork loin, and a brisket, yum-os! What a great day it has been. The only downfall was her poor brother was so very sick, he had a 104 degree fever and was miserable. Right after the baptism, he went home to rest and we brought a plate home for him and Jeremy from the dinner. Poor little buddy, Jeremy just got over a three day sickness himself!

Utah Trip for Cousin Reagan's Baptism

2011-02-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

Grandma and Grandpa with Reagan on her baptism day~

Jeremy, Wayne, Dru, Wayne, Priscilla, and Timmy

Timmy with his girlfriend Katie and Kenzie, Reagan, Tessa, and Skyler.

Skyler and his cousin Johnny, I want another picture in this exact spot in 9 years when these boys go on their missions.

Grandma with Kenzie and Reagan, aww, I love this picture!

Reagan, Tessa, and MaKenzie

Just a random picture showing the non-stop busy cooking.

Jeremy on our birthday date he is now 33 years old.

Me freezing to death by Jeremy's little snowman he made!

"Why, it's nice to meet you my little friend!"

Skyler and cousin Johnny freezing in the snow.

John chucking Skyler in a snow bank.

Wayne chucking a snow ball at Dru! Cousin Ethan and Makenzie

We traveled to Utah for a few days during Christmas break. We had a fabulous time, visiting with our family, playing in the snow, going to Reagan's baptism, eating way too much, celebrating New Years Eve, and Jeremy and I even went on a date! It was so much fun, I forgot how cold playing in the snow was and was quite happy to be able to come back to the warm desert. Kenzie got really sick on New Year's Day, so we cut our trip a little short to come home. My kids will never forget how much fun they had playing with their cousins and they will definitely dress warmer next time we drive to the snow!

Christmas 2010, Better Late Than Never

2011-02-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Skyler with his bow made by his dad!

Skyler and Kenz at the Christmas Village

Fun at the Christmas Village

Kenzie and Brynn with the dolls they got for Christmas.

SKyler and Kenzie Christmas morning 2010

Kenzie during Christmas break in Phoenix for audiology appt.

Uncle Billy and Brynn ice skating at the Christmas Village.

Some of the yummy goodies I made to deliver to friends.

Kenzie at the Christmas Village.

Skyler Christmas morning listening to my old CDs.

So, Christmas this year was a beautiful time for us. We were able to go up to Phoenix and see the gorgeous temple lights. We had Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma Devey's, we had a Christmas story reading by Uncle Tommy. They wanted each family to do a skit or song or poem for a talent. We did a little song as a family for our "talent." I also read a poem I wrote a couple years back about what I would say to Mary if I had five minutes to talk with her about what is was like raising the son of God. After much laughter, a few tears, and way too much delicious food, we headed back to our home to get nestled in our beds. The kids each opened one gift as is our tradition on Christmas Eve. We were so blessed this Christmas, we don't go around telling the world how difficult it is trying to live on my salary alone, but obviously they know. We had a knock and run and on our door step was a huge basket full of goodies, and all of the trimmings for a delicious Christmas dinner. We also had a delivery from a secret Santa who left a few presents for each of our family, it was so kind of whoever did it. We shed a few tears due to the love we felt from our ward family as well as the love we felt from being watched over by our Father in Heaven. It was a wonderful Christmas, Kenzie received her second choice gift from Santa which was a makeup set she saw at Walmart. Her first choice was a magic wand that really produced magic. :) Christmas day we ate a big breakfast before opening our presents. The kids enjoyed opening their gifts and actually protested a bit when we said it was time to leave to go to Grandma's for dinner. There was no arguing or fighting from the kids at all that day and it was absolutely Heavenly. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends, but even more importantly, we are blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that he was not just a good man born on this earth, he is God's only begotten son. He came to earth to show us all the right way to live, he performed countless miracles, he died for us so that we would have the opportunity to live again with our Father in Heaven. He is our Savior and friend and I feel so grateful to know that, without a shadow of a doubt. What a special day to celebrate his birth.

Randomness...

2010-12-04T00:49:00.001-08:00

Here are a few random pictures from the past couple months. I posted a ton below, so I just lumped these pictures together without the accompanying novel. This is a clay manger scene that Makenzie made today, when I took the picture Makenzie said, "wait, wait, I will be the angel, because I don't have enough clay to make it!"Skyler overtaking my teacher desk, I love my boy!

MaKenzie's 2nd grade Johnny Appleseed performance

Skyler in the Veteran's Day parade

A quick visit from sweet grandma Sharon!

MaKenzie and cousin Brynn taking off!

My little monkey~

Welcome Baby Lillie!

2010-12-04T00:18:00.000-08:00

Skyler holding baby Lillie on Thanksgiving Day!

MaKenzie and her new cousin Lillie

He wanted to hold her so much, it was instant love.

Lillie on her birthday, 5lbs 2 oz, welcome to the world!

So my wonderful sister-in-law welcomed her beautiful baby girl into the world the week before Thanksgiving. She named her Lillie Elizabeth Ogden. She was 5 pounds 2 ounces. I was so blessed to be able to go to the hospital the night Angie had her. She had a C-section and was in an awful lot of pain, her husband had some errands to run, so I sat and held my new niece for a few hours. It was bliss. Everyone knows how desperately bad we have wanted another baby, pretty much for the past 6 years. We had been thinking about getting pregnant right before learning Makenzie was deaf. Once we had her diagnosis, we knew we had to put all of our energies, blood, sweat, and tears into getting her the services she needed to be able to learn how to speak and understand when being spoken too. After moving to Phoenix and getting her her cochlear implant and the intense services and schooling, she achieved her goal, so we moved back to Yuma excited and ready to expand our family. When we prayed about it though, the Spirit kept telling us the time was not right. I didn't want to listen to that voice, but I knew I had to. Soon after we put our dreams on hold again, we felt I should go back to school to pursue my Master's Degree in Deaf Education. So, I began the Master's program through the University of Arizona full-time, I began working full-time, and my life has been a whirl wind ever since. Heavenly father was preparing me to help take care of our little family during this tough time with Jeremy's health concerns. Had we had a baby, I don't know how we would have made it through this time. I keep praying that Jeremy will one day get better. That I will be able to have more kiddos. It breaks my heart to hear my children beg me to have another baby. I would give anything in the world to change this situation and to be able to have another one, but I have to think about the family I have and count my blessings everyday. I know so many people spend years trying to have children without success. I frequently remind myself of this. I really am more blessed than I can say, I have two beautiful children who keep me on my toes, who bring me my greatest joy in life and who sometimes drive me nuts. I live each day with a hope that our situation will improve and that more babies are in our future. I feel like there are still spirits up there waiting to come down, but I know it is not yet time. Wow, I don't think I have ever opened up about my constant ache to have another baby. I just want my children to read back in this blog book one day and know that I wanted more than anything to give them another brother or sister. If I ever have another child, I want them to read back on this and know how much they were loved and yearned for for years before they joined our family. OK, well I need to end this sob story, this was supposed to be a happy post to welcome our new cousin, so once again, WELCOME BABY LILLIE, WE LOVE YOU!

Jeremy Update

2010-12-03T23:58:00.000-08:00

So I have questions all the time about how Jeremy is doing. I wish I had fantastic news and could say he is back to his old self, but he has a ways yet to go. He began having some break through seizures last month and they were not pretty. He messed up his face during one of them, i came home from school and was shocked to find him with the skin scraped off his nose, a lump on his head, and his lips looking like he was a Simpson's character. He didn't want to admit that his seizures had begun again because he had such high hopes that he was recovering and would one day in the near future feel like himself again and be able to work again. It was very hard to see him like that. We ended up going back up to the Mayo Clinic and having a long appointment with his doctor there. Since Jeremy had begun his medication Vimpat several months ago, his seizures had significantly decreased, but the side effect was that he was sea sick 24/7. He tried not to complain about the side effects because he said he would take being nauseous for the rest of his life over having another seizure any day. Aside from the fact that he was having break through seizures on the medication, the doctor didn't want him to feel the way he was feeling on a permanent basis, so he started him on a new medication. He is still working on getting up to the full dose of the medicine, there is just a 1 in 10 chance he will develop a possibly fatal rash called Steven Johnson's Syndrome, so while he is slowly increasing his dosage of the new medication over the 8 week period, he has to remain on the old medication as well, so he is a bit of a mess, I feel so bad for him. He is such a trooper through all of this, I can't imagine going through what he has gone through since last January, it has literally been a nightmare. We are all praying that his body and mind will heal and that he will get his life back. He wants to be able to work again and feel like himself. We have faith this will happen, it may just be a while yet. One thing he has done during this time is he has studied how to make bow, not the girly kind, but the bow and arrow kind, here is a picture of one of the ones he made.

Halloween 2010

2010-12-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

This is the costume Makenzie had for the DHH performance, she was a cashier in the pumpkin patch. She had a blast, her mask had the fluorescent paint on it which glowed beautifully in the black lights.

Makenzie (AKA "Pink Belle Fairy")

Makenzie and Skyler's best friend Jordan. They always hang out in my classroom before school!

Pink Belle Fairy

I don't ever post pictures of my students, but this is my kindergarten group and I just love these kids, I want them to be in my blog book forever! This picture was taken way before Halloween, we were learning the various vocab words associated with Halloween and this picture came after discussing what a costume was. They loved picking costumes from my bag!

What a busy time of year, I can't wait for the holidays next year without all the mountains of college work to do. This Halloween we had a nice time. Kenzie joined the Deaf and Hard of Hearing kids for our annual black light performance at school. Our students at Desert Mesa acted out the story Six Small Pumpkins, the Jr. High DHH kids acted out Skeleton Hiccups, and hte High School DHH students danced to the song Ghost Busters. It was a huge hit, but a ton of work, especially for our amazing aid Yara, she worked for weeks on turning the stage into an amazing set for our three different acts.

In regards to costumes, Skyler didn't really dress up, he just wore a sports jersey and carried a football. I was super sad about this, I can't believe how much my little boy has grown up lately. He is such a nice young man. He will be 11 this summer. I can't even believe it. Kenzie was a a fairy, she wrote a book about her character and drew pictures of herself in it, her official name was, "Pink Belle Fairy." She looked so beautiful. I don't know how Jeremy and I have such gorgeous children. Kenzie enjoyed marching around the school in the character parade with the book she wrote. We went to the church trunk or treat and Kenzie scored big time in the candy department. Skyler hit a few cars and then just wanted to play with his friends and eat a few of his pieces of candy. He is not a crazy sugar fanatic like his sister. Kenzie ate way too much candy, but I hid the bucket in her closet and thought she had forgotten about it since she hadn't asked for any of her candy for over a week. One day she was being rotten to her brother, so I put her in her room for a while, long story short, she found that bucket of candy and she rather enjoyed her hour long time out!!!!! I was quite happy last week at the dentist to find out that she did not have nay cavities, I was quite worried. So that was our Halloween, nothing too special, but it was good. Oh one of our favorites was watching the Halloween specials on TV, not the scary ones, but the kid ones, we looked forward to Friday Family Movie nights all month long!

A Lot of Catching Up to Do...

2010-12-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

I really don't even know where to begin, I am sure you can assume that since my last post was back in September that I have been running ragged around here. I wish I could remember all of the highlights, low lights. etc. from the past few months, but my brain seriously feels fried. I am wanting to print my blog into a book again and I couldn't slurp it into a book with my last posts being several months ago and simply being pictures of my classroom. The question is...where do I begin, this picture describes how I feel, I want to pull my hair out! This picture was obviously staged, but not for blogging purposes, it was actually for a regular past tense verb experience book I made with one of my students. This particular student took a picture of me to match the sentence in our experience book, "Miss Alison brushes her hair." Obviously that is a third person singular, not regular past tense, but we were working on her auditorily identifying the difference in the verb tense, as well as learning to produce the phrases orally. The other sentence was "____ brushed her hair." I took a picture of her with the brush in her hand and her nice and smooth. Wow I have gone off on a tangent, probably because it is a Friday, well technically a Saturday morning now since it is after midnight. I definitely tend to ramble when I am tired!!!!!!!!!!!

My Dr. Seuss Themed Room, I Am Loving It!

2010-09-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

So I have several fun themed bulletin boards that I didn't put in this post because I need to go to bed and it takes FOREVER to upload pictures. My front classroom door and yes I know it is missing an 's

One of my front classroom windows!

One of my hallway bulletin boards

My reading tree corner

My board that still needs pictures of my students with some of their special work to display.

Better Late Than Never

2010-09-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

Makenzie eating breakfast in the cafeteria on her first day of school!

The three of us before heading out the door to school.

Skyler and MaKenzie Devey's first day of school 2010-2011 school year.

So we all started school the week of August 17th. The kids have great teachers this year and I get to work with my same great students plus a new little kinder. I chose to do a Dr. Seuss themed room this year with a ton of help from the best aide ever, Yarra! She is truly an artist and helped design my ideas!

Skyler is in the 5th grade this year, this is his last year in elementary school and it makes me so sad. I honestly can't believe how fast time has gone. His teacher this year is great. His name is Mr. Gilliland and he is a very hands on teacher. He trains service dogs, so his class usually has 3 dogs in it everyday, Skyler is in heaven!

Makenzie is in the second grade and her teacher is Ms. Maynard, she is a very good teacher. MaKenzie is thrilled because her best friend Kendalyn is in her class. She is so lucky to have such a patient and kind friend, it literally brings tears to my eyes when I see them playing together. I love that she has such a special friend. Their days are filled with talk about Fairies and magical lands and writing letters to each other and trading little toys, it is great!

Here is to another year, oh and I will graduate in less than a year from my Master's in Deaf Ed. program, YAY! It has been a lot of work magnified by about a million with Jeremy's crazy health this past year. Even with him being out of work and his health issues, we count our blessings everyday that I have a job, that we have a car to drive, and a roof over our head. We know as tough as things have been, they could always be worse.

More Pictures

2010-09-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

More pictures from the wedding weekend~
Makenzie and her cousin Breille

Grandma Sharon with Kenz

Uncle Timmy dancing with Kenz. It was funny she said, we can dance Seth and Heather, but we can't be married or kiss like they do. Timmy agreed with her and told her to never say anything like that again, it was funny.

Skyler with Uncle Wayne,cousin Ethan, Aunt Michelle, and cousin Tessa

Wayne and Priscilla with their ten children, what an amazing family!

More Catch Up Photos

2010-09-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

So here are some more pictures from our weekend in Phoenix for our nephew Seth and his wife Heather's wedding.

The boy cousins playing with their gameboys while waiting for the reception to begin.
One of my favorite pictures EVER, Kenzie kissing Grandpa Wayne's head.
The Bottoms and Arnold family! GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Makenzie and Skyler outside the Mesa temple.
The kids with Granny, Eloise Thompson.

Very Late in Posting These

2010-09-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

These were pictures taken from our nephew Seth Arnold's wedding which happened to be on our 11th anniversary. It was a great time! Oh and the date was June 12, 2010. It has been a great eleven years. We have gone through things together that eleven years ago we never would have believed could happen. It has been a great ride, I just hope the bumps in the path (sickness) is just about over. I have to say Jeremy's health is definitely improving, he still has rough times, but his seizures have significantly slowed down.

Some of the Devey Grandsons, what a bunch of handsome boys!
Some of the beautiful Devey grandaughters
Here is a little family snapshot
My beautiful little girl!
My handsome boys~

Favorite Camping Picture

2010-07-11T17:10:00.001-07:00

Most days there was a brief 20 minute rain shower, it was beautiful! This one particular day there was a gorgeous double rainbow!

Our Final Camping Day

2010-07-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

So Sunday morning was the 4th of July, we woke up early and got the fire and grill going, we made a big breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, and grits. After eating and cleaning up, we had a morning side of sorts where Jeremy talked to the kids about what the 4th of July means and how very blessed we are to live in this free country. Then we loaded up water bottles and drove to the AZ trail, we hiked a small ways into it until we found the perfect spot for our outdoor church. We had an opening prayer and song, Jeremy blessed the sacrament for us, we had a short testimony meeting, then we had a closing song and prayer, it was so beautiful there. We rarely ever miss a Sunday of church, but this was as close as we could get to it up in the mountains, it was really a special time and a nice way to end our camping trip. We went back to camp, we all pitched in and got our camp cleaned up and our tents and all put away. A camp ranger drove past as the kids were doing one final hunt for any paper or trash, the ranger stopped and thanked us for leaving our campground so clean, she gave the kids each Smokey the Bear Frisbees, shoelaces, zipper pulls, and a few other little thinks, they were so excited! Then we said goodbye to Rock Crossing Campground and headed home. It was sad and exciting to leave. Sad because we were coming back to the "real world" with cell phone reception, Internet, homework, etc, but exciting because we were also coming back to showers, and soft beds. It was a week I will never forget and I hope our kids will remember all the special times we had. Hopefully we won't wait another 4 years before going on another family camp out, I think this should definitely be a yearly tradition.

Camping Day #4

2010-07-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, the kids woke up asking to go back to the gorgeous Clear Creek Canyon. We needed to go get an oil change first and we wanted to go to check out the Arts and Crafts fairs in the small towns of Pine and Strawberry, so we made a fun day of it. We ended up going to Payson to get an oil change, there just so happened to be a big parking lot festival right next to the Jiffy Lube. The kids just hung out and jumped in the big jumping castle/slide things, we bought kettle corn and just walked around, it was so nice, I LOVE small towns. After our car was done, we went back to the campground and fed the kids and then headed to Clear Creek Canyon, we walked down it a bit and found a deeper section, it was like ice water, but everyone jumped in anyways. Skyler immediately caught a water snake snake, UGGGHHHH, I didn't want to get in the water after that. I did break down and end up holding both of the snakes he caught while everyone else swam and played in the water. Skyler made a couple of friends and showed them how to catch crawdads, they followed us everywhere. I never saw their parents the whole couple hours we were in our secluded area, but we saw them after we hiked back up to the parking lot(scary). Skyler let several people hold his snakes before he released them back into the water, then he helped a couple little kids catch crawdads, they had fishing poles, but he would just reach in the water and grab them with his bare hands, what a cool kid! He had a net he had initially used to catch the crawdads, but he wanted to give it to the two friends he made because they didn't want to touch the crawdads with their bare hands. I was proud of him for being so nice. Kenzie had a great time holding the snakes too. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs at the camp on Saturday night. We had our first and only incident before dinner when Kenzie fell out of a tree and landed hard on her leg, she scraped it up pretty good as you can see from the pictures. The picture where Skyler is hugging her from behind made me laugh because she was crying so hard when he hugged her, I wanted a picture of it and she made herself smile for the camera. After dinner was ready, Kenzie just wanted me to go in the tent with her and play UNO, so I did, her leg was stinging so bad. She finally said, maybe I need to say another prayer, she did, she prayed that her leg would quit hurting so bad and that she could quit thinking about it so she would be able to beat me at UNO(nice). A few minutes into our game she said, "Mom, it isn't hurting so bad anymore, wow, can't you just feel how much Heavenly Father loves us, he made my pain go away, we are so lucky to be loved so much." I can still hear her little voice saying that, it was one of those moments that makes you so happy; to know that her testimony is growing and that she can feel her Heavenly Father's love. That love, along with ours of course, will get her through anything this world throws at her. Anyways, Jeremy wasn't feeling well after dinner, his head was killing him, so he went to bed early. The kids and I played card games, and sat by the fire. I told them their ghost story that night by the campfire instead of in the tent so Jeremy could get some sleep. The campground got very full that night with it being the day before the 4th of July. It was a very fun day and night. Once we went to bed we all slept like rocks.

Camping Day #3

2010-07-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ugg I wish I would have just done all the camping posts at once, I feel so old because I can hardly remember what we did on which day now. Oh well, I will just have to give it my best shot. On day three we woke up ate breakfast and did our morning scavenger hunt, the kids LOVED following the trails or the clues we provided them to help lead them to their prize. We played a couple games of UNO after cleaning up, then we headed out hoping to join the Polar Bear club by jumping in the Blue Ridge Reservoir, unfortunately it was quite a STEEP hike down from the parking lot to the water and we were just not going to risk it with the dog and kids, so we ended up taking a scenic drive to Long Lake, we had never been there before, but we drove and drove and finally got there, it was pretty from a distance, but the water was all cloudy and it was muddy and mucky, so we ended up leaving shortly after arriving, Kenzie managed to step in a big wet pile of cow poop right before we got to the car, so that was an adventure in it's stinky self. We ended up going to a small area of Clear Creek up in the mountains, it was absolutely beautiful. I almost cried sitting there watching the Jeremy and the kids catch crawdads, there was a cool breeze down in the canyon and it was just so peaceful. We caught a million crawdad, actually I think the number was 32. The kids were so excited to eat them, I was a little leery, but Jeremy made me promise to just taste them. On the way back to camp, we made a pit stop at Clint's Well gas station and got ice for the cooler and ice cream for the kids, then back to camp we went. We cooked and ate the crawdads, they were actually pretty good, you don't get more than a bite, but Jeremy wanted us just to practice catching and cooking what we caught in case we ever had to live off the land (hopefully that day never comes, but who knows). The kids enjoyed free time to just play in their "tree houses" and catch bugs while we got dinner going. After dinner we had a devotional again and talked to the kids about how important they are to us. Then we played UNO and Phase 10 made smores, and then got ready for bed. It was Jeremy's turn to tell the Ghost story that night, he told one about Vampires, it was actually quite good, there was no Cullen family involved, but it was pretty spooky. The kids loved it and fell asleep super fast. It was a great day. As I am typing this, I am really missing the beautiful mountains. It is super hot and humid here in Yuma today.

Camping Day #2...

2010-07-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

We woke up at 6am and got the fire going and breakfast ready, it was so nice to be chilly, that NEVER happens during the summers here in Yuma. After we got cleaned up, the kids played with a couple kids that came to visit our campsite, Kasey and Trey. Jeremy and I read and talked about what we would do that day. We ended up driving down to Winslow so the kids could jump off the big rocks into the reservoir there. THEY LOVED IT! The water was freezing, but it felt so good. Jeremy jumped off the small cliff with the kids. I wasn't planning on jumping in since it was only our second day of camping and we didn't have showers at our camp or there at the reservoir. I just didn't want to be gross already. My kids told me that I was probably just afraid to jump that far and that I was just using the whole "I don't want to get my hair wet" as an excuse, so needless to say, I had to run and jump off that cliff to show my kids I am not that big of a chicken (if they only knew). We played there and then went back to town, we ended up grabbing lunch at McDonalds and then driving around and finding my friend Natalie's restaurant. I ran in and got a root beer for Jeremy there and we took a picture to prove that we were really there so my friend would believe me. Then we went and filled up our cooler with ice and food at Walmart and then we drove back up to camp where the kids played and played until dinner. Oh and we decided to do some type of scavenger hunt for them each morning before leaving the camp. The prize was always something cheap from the dollar store. Most days we just made arrows out of sticks that lead them to their prize in the woods, but the first day, I made a scavenger hunt with stupid clues. The kids would take turns reading and finding the clues. They LOVED it. Here are the silly clues I came up with...

#1-"The tent is not the place for these guys who are blue and black with tiny eyes. To see where your next clue will be, hurry off to the beetle tree."

#2-"The sun above can bring us great thirst, where should you go when you need water the worst? To find the place your clue will be, it's on the water spout near the place you go pee." (I know kinda gross, but it rhymed)

#3-"Clue number 3 you will find, under a plate with rules you must mind."(We wrote our camp rules on a paper plate)

#4-"You're almost there just a few clues more, your next clue you'll find behind door number 4." (car door)

#5-"The next clue is not very far, it is under a rock near the car."

#6-"Almost there, I hope you're not bored you'll find this clue where the wood is stored."

#7-"Here's the moment, your prize will be nice, for food not to rot you must use ice!" (ice chest)

They were so excited to find their little dollar store bug cages, those were two very well spent dollars, they played with those the entire trip!
After dinner the second night we played a few rounds of UNO and then had a little devotional again, this time it was about being a good example to those around us, and choosing the right even if it is not "the cool thing to do." Oh and after the first night on the hard ground, my back was killing me, so Jeremy blew up a little pool air matress for me to sleep on, it helped, but I was up half the night because every little move I made it would make the loudest farting sounds. People were probably so grossed out, it really was so loud. Oh and I was in charge of the ghost story that night. The kids said they wanted the scariest story EVER, so I did my best. Halfway through the story this is what they say,
Kenzie- "Mom, I think your story may be a little too scary!"
Skyler- "Yeah mom, can you tone the scariness down a notch or two."
I wasn't scared a bit until the middle of the night when I had to go to the bathroom again by myself. I had a flashlight that time, but then I was even more nervous than the night before because if there were skunks or other animals in my path I would actually see them. Day number two was a TON of fun~!

Camping Day One...

2010-07-06T08:14:00.001-07:00

Man I wish I could have had a computer or even a journal to record in at night on our camping trip, I feel like I have already forgotten a ton of the fun details of our trip. I want to include it all for Skyler and MaKenzie to read back on one day. So I am going to post a little about what we did each day. On Wednesday morning we woke up, finished loading the car and were about to start our trip when Jeremy did a quick check of the tires; he noticed that our front ones were really bad, so instead of spending our morning driving, we spent it waiting for our tires to get changed. We were finally on the road by noon. It was so great after we were through Phoenix and we would touch the windows and they were slowly getting cooler and cooler. We were pleasantly surprised that the kids didn't try to kill each other or fight at all on the way up, they were packed so tightly in the back seat, they had a cooler in-between them so they really couldn't even see each other. Skyler held our dog Annie the whole way there. We arrived at Rock Crossing Campground around 5pm and it was soooooooo nice, the weather was perfect. While Jeremy and I put the tent and dining fly up, the kids gathered firewood and scoped out potential tree houses and forts. That evening we just ate soup for dinner and then roasted some marshmallows. Jeremy borrowed a really great church book with talks in it from his mom and we had a little lesson that night about making good choices. Then we all snuggled up in our sleeping bags and listened to Jeremy tell a ghost story, he was being very serious about it and then he made up a name for one of his characters and I couldn't help but laugh and then he started laughing and it kind of ruined the whole spooky thing he had going. We were all asleep by 9:30, I was the only one who had to get up during the night to use the bathroom. I am such a baby about leaving the tent in the middle of the night. We forgot to buy batteries, so our flashlight didn't work, it was a bright moon, but was still creepy as I headed towards the bathroom site. I kept thinking about happy thoughts trying to distract myself from the story of the ancient Indian legend that Jeremy told us all earlier. When I spotted the door to the bathroom ahead, I ended up running to it and quickly locking the door behind me. Who, in there right mind, wants to hang out in a camping bathroom. They had lots of air freshener in there so it actually smelled like apples and Cinnamon, but it was pitch black. I was wishing I had taken the dog with me because I was all scared and paranoid. I finally walked back to the campsite and then I laid there awake for a while since the adrenalin was going. I felt like such a little kid, I can't believe I am 31 years old and yet walking to that bathroom in the dark I felt like I was 9. It makes me laugh now, I was just sure though that I would cross paths with a skunk or worse, the scary Indian shape-shifter from Jeremy's story. Well that was pretty much day one of camping in a nutshell, I will post about day two later.

My Baby is TEN!

2010-06-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

Skyler on his blessing day with mom and dad
Skyler enjoying his bath
Skyler age 4
Skyler with a couple lizards he caught
Skyler age 7 with his sister MaKenzie
Skyler with his dad on his baptism day
Skyler the morning of his 10th b-day
Skyler waiting for his friends to come Slip N Slide on his 10th b-day
Skyler with the cake his dad made for his birthday
Last night Skyler wanted me to hold him like a baby and sing to him like I did when he was a baby. So I cradled his long body in my arms and rocked him and sang him a song. It was all rather silly, because he was acting goofy and wanted me to drop him when I sang the line, "down will come baby cradle and all." Anyways, as I rocked my giggling son, I could remember the countless nights of rocking him to sleep when he was so small. How I long for those days at times. I would miss the stages they are at now if I were to go back and re-live those days, but oh how I miss being able to keep them with me 24/7 and know they are safe from the craziness and hurt that is out there in the world. It is amazing to see them grow each day, but at the same time it is very bitter-sweet. Last night he made me laugh when he said, "Mom, this is my last night as a kid, now I am going to be considered to be a tween." I was not too familiar with that term, he told me it is when a kid is age 10-12???? So now I am the mother to a tween, kinda weird.

Skyler you're such an amazing son, you have such a great outlook on life. I have seriously never met a boy with such a great heart. I know I complain sometimes about your love of animals and bugs, but I know that is a special attribute you have from our Heavenly Father, thank you for always being willing to remove any beetle or spider that may want to take up residence in our house. I am going to tell you about a few of the things I absolutely love about you.

~I love how you always tug on my arm or whisper in my ear and point out babies at church. You will make a great Daddy one day, and hopefully we will be able to have another baby in our home one of these days. I know you will be a big help and that the baby would really look up to you.

~I love how you still like for me to tuck you in and lay with you at night. I know sometimes I seem impatient as I am trying to get things done and you keep asking for me to come BACK to your room to bring you water, give you a hug, hear something funny, turn on/off the fan and our lights, or just to talk, but I honestly wouldn't' trade any of those special moments for anything. I hope you will always want me to come and have those special times together.

~I love how you keep us on our toes. If there is even one semi-bad word in a movie, you are first to tell us we need to turn the channel. I know I don't always say so, but that makes me so proud of you. I hope you will always stay that way and watch only shows that you know are appropriate. The world is full of bad things, you can't even watch the commercials on TV without being bombarded with worldly and inappropriate things. Skyler you are such a good example to us.

~I love that even though she drives you practically insane, you forgive Kenzie every time she gets into your things, calls you names, invades your space, or takes a whack at you. I know it is hard for you, sometimes more than others, but you always forgive and move on, thank you. There is nothing that makes me happier than seeing the two of you playing together and having fun!

~I love that you do your wacky crazy dance to make me laugh, you know, the one involving Egyptians, scissor hands, and wobbly hips. You are such a nut!

~I love that you still like to be tickled!

~I love that you are always reorganizing the Star Wars shelves.

~I love looking for the hidden pictures in Highlights magazines with you.

~I love that you ask me to recap all the Ghost Whisperer episodes to you since I don't let you watch them.

~I love your laugh, your smile, I just LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU BUD!
Happy Birthday Skyler, I hope you had an amazing day! Thanks for being a great son!

Aloha

2010-05-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Ouch, I can't see you mom

Getting ready to go for a swim in her fake water
Check out my grass skirt mom
Nothing says fun like surfin on a stool
A very small corner of my beach scene in my room!

So I had a super fun Luau at school on Friday with my deaf and hard of hearing kindergarten class. We had so much fun making smoothies adn putting them in our pineapple shaped water bottles, surfing on our surfboards that we painted during the week, putting sunscreen on our skin so we wouldn't get sunburns, and doing the Hula of course. One of my aids helped put up the decorations that I bought to turn our room into a Hawaiian getaway. I had grasss skirts and leis for my kiddos, it was a lot of fun. After school Kenzie came to my room and wanted to pretend like she was going to the beach too, so I took a few picts of her. Then she came home from school and made her own paper grass skirt, and paper surfboard and then she made me come to her room for her Luau, it was cute. I wish I could post pictures of me and my students on here, but I am not sure if I am allowed to do that. Anyways, it was a great way to wrap up our beach vocabulary unit!

Then to Now

2010-05-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures, this is our last picture taken during a trip to San Diego to the Scripps hospital. Jeremy was in pretty bad shape here, but he definitely went down hill after this appointment until we started receiving help from the Mayo. We loved going to the beach and just sitting and listening to the birds and waves and feeling the cool ocean air, but we were not fans of the specialists there. Now we get to go to Phoenix for our future appointments, so no more meditating on the beach, but at least we have great doctors now. Oh and I had to post the picture of Jeremy fishing yesterday. He has been wanting to fish since January, but has not been well enough to go. The kids loved fishing with their daddy!!!!!! Hopefully he will just keep getting better and better!

Catching Up to Do

2010-05-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

Jeremy and Kenzie walking outside the mayo clinic, the day he is released.
Jeremy, with Skyler, and Makenzie waiting to go home.
Skyler post-op, he was sure silly after waking up!
Skyler at PCH the morning of his surgery
Skyler and Grandma waiting in the Mayo Clinic lobby

Wow, I have been so incredibly busy these past several weeks that once again I have neglected my blog. I had nothing but time when we were at Mayo, but then once I came home, real life kicked in again and it was non-stop college work, writing IEPs for my students, and taking care of the family again. I thought I would post a few final pictures from the time we were at Mayo and also from Skyler's minor surgery a few weeks ago. Oh and just as an update, Makenzie's hearing in her left ear did come back after steroid treatments. Some say, "well that ear still has a severe/profound hearing loss, what is so great about getting that hearing back?" Makenzie uses what she gets with her hearing aid incredibly well. We were so happy when she was able to hear out of that ear with her hearing aid on again! Jeremy was able to come home I believe it was like 12 days after being admitted to Mayo, we still do not have any definite answers as to why he is having all these seizures. He is doing a lot better though since changing medications. He is no longer on Dilantin and is only using Vimpat. It is a super expensive med. but at least it is helping. He had several days with no seizures, but had them again this past Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It is so frusterating. He wants to be able to go back to work so bad, it has been so hard on him not being able to work and provide for us, the Lord has taken care of us though. He knew what would happen in our lives long before we did. He was preparing me to be able to help get us through this time in our lives. It is still rough, but we still have a roof over our head, food in our fridge, and gas in our car. I know without a doubt the only way we have been able to make it financially during these several months is by paying our tithing. We pay it with faith in our hearts knowing that it is the most important thing we can do and somehow we are able to stretch till the next paycheck. I am so grateful for the blessing of tithing. Also a HUGE accomplishment is that we have not used our credit card at all. We worked so hard to pay that off last year, vowing never to use it again unless it is an emergency, I think our situation would be classified as one big emergency after another, but the Lord has helped us through. I am so grateful for our family who have been so kind and helpful during these months, watching the kids for us during appointments/ hospital stays, having us over for Sunday dinner, and most of all praying for us to get through this trial. Thanks, we love you guys!

Has It Only Been a Day?

2010-04-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

So I am back in Yuma and Jeremy is still at the Mayo Clinic. It feels so strange, I was a huge baby yesterday on the way home. Once Skyler fell asleep, I just couldn't stop crying. I don't know if it was the fact that I hadn't slept much all week or what but I was just so sad to come home. I was super excited to see Kenzie again, but the thought of taking the kids and going home to a house without Jeremy there was rough. It has seriously been 3 months since I have been in that house without Jeremy there all the time. I know it has been hard on him being pretty much confined to the house, and I hate that he had to be, but we have sure been able to spend a lot of time together these few months, lots of long talks, lots of long nights, but it was time we were able to spend together. When we got home Skyler asked if he could sleep in dad's spot on the bed, I told him yes, then he wanted to look at photo albums to find old pictures of him and his dad, it was sweet. I hope we can soon fill more photo albums with pictures of camp outs, fishing trips, hikes, and fun family times. Anyways, enough of that talk, it feels like I haven't seen Jeremy in a week. He is having an OK day, his sister Sarah went and sat with him for a couple hours today at the hospital, he said that it was nice getting to visit with her. I talked to him at about 10:30 this evening and he was hurting pretty bad, I don't know if it is his body having withdrawals from the medication or if he is going to have a rough night with the seizures. We are still both in shock that he has only had 3 seizures this week, that is just crazy, that is typically what he would have on a good day. So let me fill you in on our new trial. Kenzie's hearing aid has not been working well for her lately, I was able to borrow a loaner from the Cooperative that I work for, but we tried it on her today, and she still says she can't hear. The thought of her needing a 2nd implant is terrifying for me, but also I feel such a sense of urgency to get the process started before that ear forgets how to hear and function as well as it did. She has trouble hearing, especially in noise, with only her implant processor on. It is heartbreaking to think we may be starting this whole process again. She was nervous at first that she may possibly need another CI, but when I told her we would not have to worry about being able to ride roller coasters anymore, she was jumping all over the place and saying "whoo hoo!" She has wanted to ride roller coasters for the past couple years, but since learning she had Enlarged Vestibular Aqueducts, that has been out of the question, those changes in altitude can wipe the remaining hearing away for good. Another thing that can make her lose that hearing is if she bumps her head, she and Skyler were playing/fighting with sticks while I was up at Mayo and she ended up getting a pretty good whack to the head, at the time I was just worried and sad for her because it was bleeding and she was so sad, but later as I put two and two together, I realized that hit may have been what took the remaining hearing away. I know many may say, well she is deaf anyway, but she had some really good usable residual hearing in that ear and did very nicely with her hearing aid. I am still praying and holding out hope that it will come back, but I am also trying to be realistic and prepare myself for the next step if it doesn't. I am rambling on and on and on again. I don't know if I will get a chance to post for a couple days, I have a busy day tomorrow with work and meetings, and then Skyler and I are headed back up to Phoenix to get the growth under his eye removed, they have to put him under for it because it is so close to his eye. When his procedure is finished, my mom will bring him back to Yuma and I will stay with Jeremy, hopefully he will be released by this weekend. I am just so scared that they will not have any definite answers. I am so blessed because my bosses have told me I can work on several IEPs while I am gone so I don't have to go without being paid, that is such a blessing right now, not to mention the fact that I have those to do as well as all my college work has been really stressing me out, so if I can get a good portion of those finished, that will alleviate a bit of stress. OK well I am going to try to get some sleep.

Our Special Easter Visitor

2010-04-05T08:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Jeremy was not feeling too hot, he has been having some withdrawals from all his seizure meds. Hopefully in another day or so his blood levels will show that the Dilantin is out of his system completely. We are still trying to figure out what is going on, there are several different possibilities, hopefully we can get all the data we need so we can go home. So at about 4:00pm Skyler rode up to Phoenix with a couple of super nice kids driving back up for college. Uncle Tim picked him up and brought him over to to us at the hospital at about 9pm. It was so great seeing him, we couldn't quit hugging him, it really made our night to be able to see at least one of our kiddos on Easter. Kenzie is still in Yuma at Grandma Devey's house; she is keeping Grandma on her toes. She was excited last night because Grandma painted her nails with shiny purple polish. After Skyler asked his dad lots of questions and got the video monitor guy to say hi to him when he waved to the camera, we left the hospital and headed to Buckeye where he was going to stay the night with Aunt Jeanie.While at Jeanie's, I took a bath which was so nice. The shower here has no water pressure and the door doesn't lock, so it is always a super fast nerve wracking experience. Oh, Jeremy had a sponge bath yesterday, that was quite the experience. I gave it to him, but we were both laughing as we were struggling to keep him nicely covered up with his blanket, so uncomfortable with that camera peering down. Needless to say we managed to get him cleaned up without even once giving the camera a show. I am sure the person watching the screen thought we were crazy, I don't even want to know the many things those techs have seen in their profession. Anyways after much maneuvering he was clean and felt much better and remained modest during the whole ordeal. Oh and I have to give nurses a lot of credit they do those things all the time. Anyways, I know I say this on a daily basis, but holy cow we have amazing family! We could never have gotten through without all the support from you guys these past few months. We love you all so much. I am getting ready to meet Skyler at Phoenix Children's hospital to hopefully get the growth under his eye removed, then I am taking him back to Yuma. I will be back here on Tuesday, my mom is going to come and stay with him part of the time while I am gone. Hope we can get all the answers we need before heading back home. The doctor thinks it will still be a few more days because he wants his blood to be free of his medicine. Obviously the meds were not helping, he has had less seizures here than at any time in the past 3 months.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

So I didn't post about yesterday, I got busy working on an IEP for one of my students and a couple homework assignments. Yesterday was rough for Jeremy. He is having some stomach issues, the doctors say it could be from taking away his medication or from the special meds that they used to stop his seizures the other night. his oxygen has been horrible. The alarm goes off constantly because he is not getting enough oxygen in his blood. So he has the oxygen tube under his nose now most of the time. Tim Jeanie, Joe, and my mom all came and visited yesterday. The kids are both in Yuma now at grandmas and I am sure they are driving her crazy. Yesterday Kenzie got hit in the head with a stick and Priscilla said it was a little traumatic, she kept saying that she wished it was all just a nightmare. I guess it bled a lot as head wounds usually do, but she was OK. It is so hard having our family separated. I know the kids are in good hands, but it is hard on them too. They were happy to wake up to the goodies the "Easter Bunny" left for them. So I want to say a huge THANK YOU to the Bunny for taking care of our kids when we could not. The Dr. came in yesterday and said our stay here is going to need to be extended several days because those huge seizures he had the other night produced no EEGs. We were shocked, but the doctor said that does happen in patients whose problems are located deep in the frontal lobe of the brain. Now we are doing yet more testing, waiting for his seizure meds to be completely out of his system. It is funny, it seems like he is doing a little better with his meds being reduced so much. I told our old doctor in San Diego all the time that he was getting worse and worse on the med. he changed him too. Our doctor here is not sure his seizures are epilepsy at all, but he is doing his best to figure it out. We are definitely in good hands here. I don't even want to think what this hospital stay will cost. There is someone watching his every move Jeremy makes. He is on video every second of every day. I will tell you some common phrases we hear on the intercom through out our day.
"Jeremy don't touch your head please."
"Jeremy don't bite your finger nails."
"Jeremy you need to lower your book so we can see your whole face."
"Jeremy lift your head when you change positions so you don't rub the electrodes."
"Are you doing OK Jeremy?"
"Jeremy you can't lay face down, we need to see your face."
"Alison, remember you may not sit on the bed."
"Can you please open the bathroom door a little more."
They are super nice about it all, but they don't miss a thing!
Anyways, I am trying to decide what I will do now. I have two conflicting voices in my head right now. Kenzie is having issues with her hearing equipment right now, so I need to go back to Yuma and get her taken care of. My mom says she will come stay with Jeremy. I also need to be working again. My spring break is officially over. I know I will not function very well in Yuma with him being here so far away. Skyler is getting a ride up to Phoenix tonight because he has an appointment at Phoenix Children's Hospital tomorrow, I might take him back to Yuma afterwards, get things set up for my students,try to get a loaner hearing aid for Makenzie, and then work Tuesday and come back up after work. We shall see. Now back to Easter, I am sad I don't have pictures to post of my kiddos excitedly ransacking their Easter baskets, I am sure grandma took a lot of pictures for me. I am glad my kids understand that the eggs, candy, it is all just the icing on the cake. The real reason for this special day is our older brother Jesus Christ, that he came down to earth, he showed us the example of how we should live our lives. He loved each and everyone of us so much that he gave his life for us so we could also have the opportunity of rising again after this life and being able to return to live with him and our Father in Heaven. I am so grateful to know that this life doesn't end with death, that because our Savior died for us we have the opportunity, if we live our lives as we should, to be with our families forever in Heaven forever. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter, and take time to reflect on what it is really all about.

What a Night

2010-04-03T02:19:00.001-07:00

Jeremy settled back down for the night, diggin the new meds!

Mom. Nicky and I, Jeremy had the camera at an angle in the bed, so this pict is hillarious! It looks like mom's the tallest and I am the shortest, very strange...

My crazy buff sister! She is running marathons now, can you tell I am proud of her?

Jack, baby Chloee, and my little MaKenzie girl. She had so much fun with her cousins!

So I am doing another middle of the night post right now. It is 2:19am and we are settling back down for the night. I will give the highlights from day 4. Today I had to leave the hospital for a few hours to go pick up MaKenzie from Aunt Brigette's, she was such a good girl while she was there. She woke up, dressed herself, brushed her teeth, put her toupee tape and implant on by herself every morning. At night she would take it all off, put her batteries on the charger and read her chapter book until she fell asleep. Oh, one funny thing, she is reading Junie B. Jones books lately. The other day in the car on our way here, she says, "Mom, Junie B. Jones has very bad grammar." It cracked me up, I was hesitant to let her read Junie B. books for that very reason, since we busted our butts for four over five years helping her learn how to talk and use good grammar. Anyways, so Kenz had fun. Her little cousin Jack told his mom he was going to throw a toy at me because I came to take Kenzie away today, it was pretty funny. After picking up Kenz we went and got her some lunch, then I drove to ASU to drop her off with her Aunt Melissa who was driving back to Yuma today. On the way over we were talking about various aspects of college, dorm life, etc. So while we were waiting for Aunt Melissa to come get her from the parking lot, she said, "So since I am going to hang out with Melissa for a couple hours mom, does that mean it is kinda like I am in college now?" Another laughing moment, but also a little scary, I don't know if my over-tiredness and built up emotions got the best of me or what, but after driving away and leaving there behind, I bawled like a baby, I just kept thinking that one day I really will be dropping her off and driving away when she starts college. It was so nice getting a couple hours with her before going back to the hospital, but I was ready to be back with Jeremy, I was so worried about him while I was gone. He did fine though, he slept the whole time. Later in the afternoon my mom and sister Nicky came for a little visit, it was nice seeing them. After they left Jeremy and I watched "Mall Cop." The sleep study doctors came in to start him on another machine for his sleep study since he rarely gets enough oxygen when he sleeps. I finally drifted off to sleep around midnight. I knew I needed to get some because Jeremy was experiencing the Aura and we knew it might be a long night. So about 12:45 I heard the awful sound he makes when he starts having a seizure and as I jumped up the alarms were already going crazy in this wing of the hospital, he was having a very bad seizure. Last night he had a mild seizure, but this one was the kind we are used to at home. All I can say is that whole locking him in bed with the belt kept him from going over the guard rails of the bed. I had to jump back as the team of nurses and technicians gathered around his bed, trying to restrain him from hurting himself, one was trying to suction him during it. After it ended they did his blood pressure, asked a million questions, had him read a sentence, do a simple math calculation, and several other things. Most of which he couldn't do for a while until his brain stopped throbbing and he was able to focus. His blood pressure was 200/100, right after the seizure. I may have mixed the top and bottom number up, but he it is headed for 3 am, there will be a million typos in this post. So once they got their information, they covered him up and left the room. He told me he was feeling the aura again and was pretty sure another one would come before too long. He had barely said that when everything started tightening up and then BOOM, he was having another Gran Mal seizure, the alarm went off, it is so loud, it goes off on the whole floor so that all available nurses can run straight to the flashing room. They came in and did the same things as before, he was definitely unable to answer most of the questions after the seizure ended, but he could read and tell them where he was at. The nurses said he needed the medicine Adavan (I know I spelled that wrong) because he had just had two very severe seizures in a row, and that his body and brain couldn't take anymore tonight. I was so happy to hear they would give him med. to stop his seizures, usually at home he will have 5 or so in a row and it really messes him up for a while. SO when the doctors went to put the medicine in his IV they saw how bad his IV was, it was swollen, covered in blood, so they had to stick him a couple more times to get him another IV, then they were able to give him his medicine. I was a little embarrassed because when they went to take out the bad IV I held his hand and watched them clean and clean and clean it. Before they had finished all the way I had to go sit down and do some breathing to keep from passing out, or throwing up. I can't believe I got like that, that was a first for me, that arm looked really bad though, I guess when he was seizing so hard it just foced that tube and blood out and made his arm get all swollen. Anyways, just talking about it makes me feel nausious again. Now he is comfortably watching TV and all is well for tonight, so I am going to log off and try and get some sleep. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Urrgghhhh the Beeping is Driving Me Insane!

2010-04-02T03:30:00.001-07:00

Ahhhh, so I should definitely be asleep right now, but it is impossible for me right now. Jeremy and I stayed up till after 1:00 am, per the Dr.s orders. He did not have another seizure last night, but he sure didn't feel too well. Then before we went to sleep they hooked him up to a monitor to do a sleep study on him. Since about 1:30, this machine has been going off every 2 minutes or so, it isn't just a small beeping sound, it is like the beep of a alarm clock, and it last for 20 or more seconds most times it goes off, Jeremy is lucky that he can sleep through anything. I finally got up like 5 minutes ago and asked them if an electrode was off or something and they said that is the sound it makes when a patients heart rate goes down too low and they need oxygen. I was like, wow, OK, so does he need to get oxygen and they said technically yes, but since we are doing a sleep study we just have to monitor and record these numbers all night for the Dr. to see tomorrow, so I will be interested to hear what the Dr. says. I have been watching the numbers on the machine now and basically his heart rate goes down to about 76-78 bpm and then the oxygen level goes down in the 80's, then both numbers will climb back up to the 90's and a few minutes later the same thing happens. At first it was keeping me awake because it was such an annoying sound, now it is keeping me awake simply because it freaks me out. Anyways, it was the middle of the night/morning like 3:00am and I didn't want to wake up my mom to talk to her, so this was my other option, hopefully the beeping will stop soon. I sincerely hope you are all sleeping peacefully out there, in the time I have written this the beeping has probably gone off 10 separate times, I seriously don't know how Jeremy or any one in the rooms around us can sleep through this. OK, yay, after I asked a nurse about the beeping I decided to leave our door cracked, that way they could hear how deafening the beeping sound was, they just came in and switched machines and turned the beeping sound off, it will definitely still be monitoring and recording his numbers, but the beeping has stopped, yay! I don't think the nurses liked the loud constant sound from the machine either.

Mayo-Day Three

2010-04-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Let's see this is going to be a quick post because Jeremy just had a seizure, we definitely are wanting more of those during our stay here so they can get as much information as possible. He is doing alright though. Our day was brightened by our sweet sister Jeanie, her husband Joe, and their son Spencer. They were so kind and brought In and Out burger to the hospital for lunch. It was fun visiting with them, we just had to keep reminding them we were on video being watched like hawks 24/7, if Jeremy even goes to scratch his head, we hear an immediate beep and the tech tells him not to touch his head at all. It was great seeing them, and enjoying a few laughs. Well I think Jeremy is about to have another, so this will be the end of tonight's post, goodnight all.

Mayo- Day Two

2010-03-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

One of Jeremy's electrodes were not fastened tight enough, so off came the head sock and on went more glue.

Mom visiting in our room after Jeremy's testing was finally over

So today was a very busy day for Jeremy, after he woke up and ate breakfast, he had testing for the next 6 hours or so. They were tests that I had to be out of the room for, so my mom drove over and we ate lunch in the cafeteria together and then just sat outside in the warm sun and talked. Have I mentioned how beautiful this hospital is? Well, it is beautiful. Jeremy was done with his testing around three. He thinks he did bad on it. There were many questions where he had to repeat numbers, phrases, etc. His memory has suffered from these seizures, but I personally feel like it has gotten a bit better the past couple weeks. So some of the blood tests from our last visit showed some markers for autoimmune diseases, so they are also looking into those, there is a rare one they are really looking at that is related to his thyroid. It can cause uncontrollable seizures suddenly as well, so it will be interesting to see what the next batch of blood work reveals. I was able to transfer the data from my video camera to my computer and then burn a disk of seizures I had been able to record Jeremy having since we were here a couple weeks ago. They have cut his medication down from 700 mg. of Dilantin to 200 mg of Dilantin, we are just waiting for him to have his seizures so they can start analyzing the data from his brain. It is so odd not praying for him to be seizure free at the moment. We have been doing that for the past 3 years, now that we are here we need him to continue having them so they can help determine a plan of action. So tonight I pulled my chair/bed next to him and we watched a movie, it is weird being here without the kids, we are missing them terribly, but they are having so much fun at Brigette and Grandma's house. I was joking with Jeremy that maybe we need the kids here to get his seizures going, it gets quite stressful when they fight back and forth with each other. They are having fun though, Skyler went to the fair with Grandma and Kenzie is here in Phoenix and went to the park with Aunt Brigette and her cousins Jack and Chloee. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family. We love you guys, thanks for the prayers.

Day One at Mayo, Let Me Start at the Beginning...

2010-03-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would try and document part of our stay here at the Mayo Clinic. I have not posted a whole lot about Jeremy's health because it embarrasses him, but he doesn't really care anymore, he just wants to get better. Basically since mid January he has been having severe Gran Mal or the new name we have been told is Tonic Clonic seizures. He has had night-time mild seizures a couple times a month for the past 3 years, but in January, they began during the day, he just was walking out to his car and went down on the pavement and banged himself up pretty good, obviously he has not driven a car since that time. He has had some pretty good concussions and agreed to wear a helmet and had to use a cane for a while as well. He was going to Scripps Hospital in San Diego, but they just told us his EEG showed abnormal slowing in the left side of his brain and kept upping his dosasge of medication. His seizures were getting progressively worse, they were everyday and they were rough. Skyler walked in the bathroom once as I was screaming hanging halfway in the tub trying to keep Jeremy's head out of the water as he was having a seizure in the bathtub, that one was traumatic, I was so scared he was going to drown. Then there was the time we had just gotten home from Scripps and he went down in the garage, the was the day before we bought him his helmet. At the time our garage light bulb was out, so as we were getting out of the car it was dark, I told him I would open the pantry door so he could see walking into the house. I opened the door turned on the light and then I looked and he was going down, I screamed for Priscilla, his mom who was watching our kids, as I and ran around the car, it was dark again and I could feel the vibrations of his head hitting the concrete, her and the kids ran out at the tail end of his seizure, he was lucky as he fell, his head's initial hit landed on a gallon jug of water, bursting it, but softening the landing. I threw my hands under his head when I got there to keep it from repetedly banging the concrete. The scary thing was there was a circular saw blade about 2 inches from his head. Kenzie was so scared he was going to get cut. The next day at school a lady I work with asked how things were at home. I asked her why and she said that Makenzie said her daddy almost cut his head off last night. I hate that the kids have had to see so many of his seizures. Jeremy hates it even worse than I do. Anyways his seizures were becoming more and more frequent, one day in an 18 hour period, he had 11 of them. I think 7 of them were back-to-back which is what the Dr. here at Mayo says is extremely life threatening. Only 1% of epilepsy patients die from their seizures, but he said Jeremy is at the top of that list if we can't get these under control. He has prescribed rescue medications to use when the seizures won't stop and he has prescribed oxygen as well to use after the seizures because his brain is being deprived of a significant amount of oxygen. Even when he is not having a seizure he is always a ball of nerves, his anxiety is literally through the roof, but that is because his brain has taken such a beating. he has a hard time remembering a lot of things, and that is REALLY hard on him. I would do anything to take this away from him and help him feel good again. I have to say that after our last Mayo appointment, the dr. added an additional medication, which seemed to help a bit. We were shocked when almost 4 days went by without a seizure, it was such a blessing, he really feels like he is going to be healed of this affliction one day. We are hoping it is sooner rather than later. He has been such a trooper through all of this. I have done my best to sheild his head, catch him when he falls and help him come back after his seizures, it has been a heartbreaking experience, but also one where I feel the Lord has been holding my hand, and helping me hold on to Jeremy. I have had many nights where all I can do is lay there awake and watch him to make sure he continues to breath. I have had to just turn over all of my worries and fears to the Lord and he has taken them willingly and let me know that no matter what happens in life, he is going to be there for me and I will be OK. I really feel that Jeremy is going to get better whether he ends up needing brain surgery or whether the Dr. finds the miracle medicine, I just feel it. I have to feel it, it is what keeps me going. I have avoided blogging much lately not only because I am incredibly busy with school and work, but because I feel like blogging about it makes it more real. Sometimes I just feel like it is a bad dream and we are just waiting to wake up. I feel horrible for my sweet husband, it is killing him not to be able to work, he has had to stay home since January. He tried to go in one day in February, but they sent him home and told him he couldn't come back until his epilepsy was under control. That was so hard on him. I am mainly journaling this for my children to read back on one day in the far far future, but I know that a lot of people out there have been praying for Jeremy and I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Also to my angel mother, she has come down since February every week to stay with Jeremy while I have had to be at work. She knows that I have to work as much as I possibly can right now. She has helped me more than I can ever say, she is so tiny, but has been able to help keep Jeremy from rolling off the couch/bed. Oh and Jeremy has basically stayed mostly in our room and kept to himself, but everytime his seizures come, our dog alerts my mom who comes rushing in to help. My dog literally goes bonkers, barking, running to us, it is such a blessing, and to think I was not happy when he came home with that dog from the pound. I was so wrong, she may have needed a home, but we sure needed her. OK I am rambling and rambling, I guess that is what happens when you are in a hospital with nothing else to do. I will try and update this daily while we are here. Thanks again for all the prayers.

School Pictures

2010-03-30T22:42:00.001-07:00

Pictures this year made me a little sad. I always buy one picture for the frame, even if they are not my favorite, but Skyler's picture this semester just looks so different from his previous picture. I can see the stress and sadness in his eyes. I decided to put this picture behind his old one because it just makes me sad to look at it. To anyone else it may seem fine, but I am not seeing the happy Skyler I am used to seeing. Hopefully as Jeremy gets better and when he is out of the fourth grade things will change. He and his teacher are constantly butting heads. He is also getting in trouble a lot at school for playing in the rocks and dirt. He did throw some rocks though one day, not at anyone or anything, just tossing them. I don't think it is that big deal, but since they told him he can't, he had to get punished. Let's see, we have had in school suspension and a week of shoveling rocks during recess because of it. Man, it isn't like he is saying bad words or bullying someone. He is just lonely on the playground and so he plays in the dirt. Sometimes it is a little hard working at the same school your kids go to because you pretty much have to grin and bear it. OK that is my vent session for the night. Sorry the scans kinda bite, but at least they are in there, oh and Jeremy scanned my pictures in too, I just look at it and laugh because I am posing the same way as my kids, and I look like a total dork!

My Sweet Funny Boy...

2010-02-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

I had to take a minute away from writing my IEP's and assessment plans to focus on something that brightened my life. Skyler came into my room tonight and said, "Mom I am working on persuasive writing at school. Do you want me to write you something?" I told him sure and continued working. He brings me a letter he quickly wrote out, this is what it said.

Dear Mom,
How about letting me watch T.V. longer, huh? I promise it will be a good choice, you see watching T.V. takes a lot of stress away and I have lots of it. Please, I promise it will be the best decision you could ever make. Please![then he had a frowny face picture labeled "puppy dog eyes"].
Sincerly, Skyler

It almost made me cry because I am just so stressed out right now with school, work, and most importantly my poor hubby and his condition.I know my kids are feeling it too and it breaks my heart, they have seen their dad go through more than any kid should see. Anyways, when Skyler saw that I actually laughed, he hurried to make another one. Things have been pretty sullen around our house for the past 5 weeks and he told me that he just loved to see me smile. Awwwww~

This was his second persuasive writing. I wish my scanner worked because he drew pictures of different people saying positive things about the product.

Hey you, m-m-m-ma-ma-mommy! Do you by chance have a tincey bit of stress? Well than try our new hair product "Non-Stress Hair!" it totally removes all current stress! It has 100% satisfaxcion. It also smoothes your hair so much that you will never have tangles. It is awsome! Only $1.00!!!!!Comes in...Straberry, coconut, cherry, chocolate, rassberry, vanilla, blueberry, and more!

What a nice little break. I need to get back to my homework, but I had to blog that because I never want to forget that, he is such a good boy, we butt heads a bit sometimes, but I just love my little boy so much. I

My Baby is 7

2010-02-06T11:41:00.000-08:00

This will probably be my last birthday picture where Kenzie doesn't care if her face is covered in ice cream.

Makenzie and her new Lava Lamp
Makenzie awaiting the second poke in her ear.

Ear Piercing
Birthday morning before school

MaKenzie turned 7 on Wednesday, she was so excited, she took cupcakes to school and also had ice cream since it was the 100 day of school celebration. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner which was one of the highlights of her day, she got to sit on the birthday saddle as they sang to her, she loved it. Her most favorite part of the day was when she and I went to the mall and got her ears pierced, she even got Cold Stone. She has asked me to get her ears pierced for the past 2 years, I always say no because I don't want her earrings to bother her CI or HA. Anyways, I finally gave in and she was ecstatic. She was so brave, she sat in the chair and told the lady that she was very nervous and that her heart was beating very fast, but that she was so excited to get earrings. Oh and she also said that the posters on the wall by the ear piercing chair had girls who were immodest on them, but they probably just didn't know better. After her ears were done she kept looking in the mirror and admiring them, then we got ice cream together and enjoyed the beautiful weather. She kept saying, "Mom, what if this is all a dream, what if I wake up and it is not my birthday and my ears are not pierced????" I kept assuring her that wouldn't happen, she is so silly. I tried really hard to make it a special day for her because we were all under so much stress with Jeremy's health, he has been having some pretty seriously seizures the past couple weeks and they are no longer "sleeping" seizures, they are when he is wide awake, he has had a few nasty falls because of this and we have had to go to the hospital, thank goodness he has not hurt himself seriously, just nasty concussions and goose eggs. So he was such a trooper to go out to dinner with us on her b-day night, I tried to talk him into us cancelling, but he did not want to do that, so he ate and had to rush to the bathroom to puke, it was so sad, he is just constantly so dizzy and his head hurts non-stop. I feel so bad for him. Hopefully when we go to the specialist in CA on Monday they can help him find a better medicine. SO last night kenzie had a little friend movie night, she had Kendalyn, Leah, and Brynn over for pizza and a movie last night, they had a blast. So, I hope this has somewhat captured our lives, I have been so busy the past few months that I have neglected our blog.

A visit to Nicky's and Misc. picts

2010-02-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

Skyler at his Pinewood Derby
Kenzie fell asleep while reading in her bed, so cute!

Rigdon, Kenzie, Brielle,and Kinley
My beautiful sister Nicky
Mom's lovely hair style compliments of Makenzie

So at the end of Christmas break I had to head up for my Spring orientation at the University of Arizona. The plan was that mom was going to go with me and stay at the hotel and watch me on the parent panel I was asked to speak on. Well Kenzie had issues with her cochlear implant, everything was too loud and she didn't wan to wear it, she had recently been re-mapped and obviously needed some more adjusting. The only time available to see her was on the day I had to be in Tucson. Our audiologist is in Queen Creek which is also where my mom lives, so I ended up dropping Kenzie off with mom and heading up to Tucson by myself. The parent panel went good, but it is always very stressful to get up and tell my story to a lot of people who are very pro-ASL, I am too if a child does not have speaking ability, but we chose the oral method for Kenz and she is doing amazing because of it. So basically I was on the chopping block, but it went alright. Kenzie had her appointment and her internal volume was definitely too loud, so they reduced it, but now it is too quiet, urghh, I just want to be able to get it right. She will have another appointment next week, hopefully we can get her mapped right. While I was in dropping Kenzie off at Mom's I was able to stop by Nicky's house so Kenzie could see her cousins, they had a great time. Kenzie was a bit of a pill for Grandma, she had never been by herself with out Skyler or us at least. Grandma took good care of her, but Kenzie didn't want to play with her or do anything fun, she just colored by herself and cried at night, poor baby, that was really hard for me. My mom is a trooper.

Christmas 2009

2010-02-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Jeremy sporting his new hunting clothes, not that he ever gets the chance to go hunting or anything.
Jeremy's 32nd b-day
Only in AZ
Kenzie ready to go to a day after Christmas swim party at Trevor and Hillary's house.

Kenzie wore her new black tights with a black sweater, I had to tell her she couldn't only wear tights, she was a little upset about that, but wanted me to take a picture of her anyway.
Christmas morning before the kids attacked their presents
Skyler and one of his Christmas presents
Well, it was a rough holiday season for me. On my first day of vacation, I woke up early, I exercised, got ready for the day by like 8am; I was ready to have a blast with the kids. As we were getting ready to leave the house I reached down to pick up my dog and something in my back SNAPPED, it was so painful, I lay on the floor for a while before I could crawl to my room. I had sprained my back, the 3 herniated disks I have in my back were enflamed again, it was awful. I was basically confined to bed for 3 weeks of vacation, I did go to the chiro almost everyday. It was rotten. I made it to the couch to watch the kids open their presents, but it was not a whole lot of fun. One positive thing was that I studied my sign language everyday. When I went to Tucson for orientation for my Spring semester of school, I attempted to take a ASL profieciency exam, I passed which means I won't have to spend 5 weeks in Phoenix or Tucson this summer taking the 4th semester of ASL. I am so incredibly happy about this! So being in bed for 3 weeks earned me 5 extra weeks this summer with my family. Lets see, what else happened over break???? Oh Jeremy turned 32, he has been having a lot of issues with his health, it has been horrible. We just want him to feel better. He is our life. I will go into more detail about him in my more current posts. I have a lot of catch up.

A few Pre-Christmas Pictures

2009-12-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

I tried to do the impossible today, take a picture of my two munchkins together where they are both smiling and cooperating. I don't know how those of you out there with several kids manage to get such nice pictures. These were the best two of the kids together that I could get, the many others were deleted because either Skyler was rolling his eyes or scooting away from Kenzie, or Kenzie was looking the wrong direction or doing a funny fake smiley face. We ended up having to stop in our attempts to get the perfect picture because we were going to be late for church.Skyler took the picture of me and Jeremy and it is a little scary looking, but I need to have picts of Jeremy and I in our blog books for our kiddos. I wish I could photoshop away the extra chins!!!!!Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone!

A Few Randoms...

2009-12-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write down a couple funny things the kids have said lately. First off, Kenz and I were checking out at Wal-Mart today and she wanted a pack of gum. I told her no because I already had gum, she started whining and would not let it go. People of course are glancing at us to see what the commotion is about, and she wouldn't stop. All of a sudden she freezes and says, "Mom is that Santa?" I looked behind me and saw the big guy himself. She hid in-between me and the checkout counter and says, "OH NO mom, I might be on the naughty list!" It was so funny, she was an angel after that. Then I found out that they were doing free 5X7 pictures with Santa and she refused to go do it, she said she was embarrassed and she didn't want him to see her up close.

Another one...The kids were in the car and Skyler is drawing with crayons in his notebook. Kenzie decides to be bother him and take his crayons. Jeremy and I are telling them to stop and be nice, then we hear this: "Ha, ha I broke your crayons Skyler!" (to which he replies) "That's OK, Kenzie they were yours." She learned a lesson that day.

Jeremy goes into Kenzie's room this afternoon...
Jeremy-Hey sweetie, are you doing OK?
Kenzie- Yep I am Daddy!
Jeremy- I love you!
Kenzie-I love you to, now get out!

(From these posts I am sure you can see the fiesty side of my daughter, she really is a character, but we sure love her.)

Our Saturday Hike!

2009-11-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

Dad, Skyler, Makenzie, and Annie dog~

Skyler, our little hiker, he got to the top of the mountain first~

Miss MaKenzie~

Mom, and her munchkins

Skyler and Kenzie in the little cave~
So we loaded up in the car today and drove out to Welton, we hiked "Ali mountain," actually it was Antelope mountain, it has a big A painted on it, but we like the name "Ali Mountain" better.It was so much fun, we couldn't believe the kids made it to the top, it was a lot of fun!

Thanksgiving Pictures~!

2009-11-28T13:50:00.001-08:00

Bridgette, Sarah, and Jack

Makenzie and Miss Brynn

Seth and Alex hugging their little mama!

Makenzie, Brynn, Reagan, and Jack playing in Timmy's truck~

More Thanksgiving Pictures!

2009-11-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

The Grandma and grandaughters walk!

Seth, his soon-to-be-wife Heather, and Alex!

Reagan and Kenzie tree climbing~

My mom, Sharon Biddulph~

John and his delicious Ham!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

Bridgette and her little Chloee!

Favorite past time for the boys= playing outside or game boys inside!

Favorite past time for the girls= playing dolls upstairs, running in the grassy retention area, bossing Jack around.

Poor grandpa Wayne and his painful ankle.

Aunt Melissa and sleeping baby Chloee.

I am still amazed that Thanksgiving has already come and gone, the holidays rush by so quickly, at least we still have Christmas around the corner. Well, this year, we went up and spent the night at Jeanie's house, she made some killer cherry pie and turkey soup. The kids stayed up the next night and watched "UP" and "Aliens in the Attic," and played the Wii. Thursday morning was Thanksgiving and my birthday, it was great! We woke up early and drove to Bridgette's house for the big day! My mom came and had Thanksgiving with us and the Devey family, we all ate way too much and had a lot of fun! I was so happy my mom came and joined us, she even brought a birthday cake so my b-day wouldn't be forgotten entirely. I couldn't even taste it though with all the pies, cheesecakes, etc, but it was so sweet of her. After letting the kids play all day, we loaded up, said our goodbyes, and headed back to Yuma, Jeremy had to work the following day. The kids drove us crazy with their bickering and fighting, so finally Jeremy decided to ride in the back and then the rest of the way we told stories that captivated the kids and kept them quiet the rest of the trip. All in all it was a fabulous day! We all have so many things to be Thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving!

New Moon

2009-11-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

So I was able to go to see New Moon on opening night. I am not a die-hard, crazed fan, but I really enjoyed the books (back in the day where I could read for pleasure, now it is all text books). It was fun to get together with friends and go see it. Our friend Sabra was able to get permission from Harkins and Summit Entertainment to do a 9pm showing before the midnight showing, we had a big block party with lots of prizes and food. I won "lip venom." It was a fun night, we had to get a pict with Edward and Jacob, the movie was REALLY great! Oh and I had to laugh at the red eyes in the pict of me Brittany and Shannon, how fitting for a vampire movie! :)

A couple more picts from T.O.F.W

2009-11-28T07:36:00.001-08:00

Time Out for Women...

2009-11-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to Time Out for Women up in St. George, Utah, it was such a wonderful weekend. My mom and dad-in-law picked me up on Thursday night and we started the drive to St. George. I ended up sleeping most of the way, it was much needed! I woke up when Wayne missed his turn off in Vegas, it was pretty comical! We got to Jeremy's sisters house a little after midnight and crashed. The next morning, we got Dru's kids off to school. Then Dru, John, Wayne, Priscilla, and myself went to the St. George temple and did sealings, it was amazing. I had never been in that temple before, it was so beautiful and as always the Spirit there is breathtaking. After the temple, we went to the church bookstore and a few other places before picking the kiddos back up from school. When we got back to Dru's I worked for a about 4 hours on a Language Analysis project for one of my classes. Then we got ready and went to Time Out for Women. The presenters on Friday included Hillary Weeks, um and some really great speakers, I really should have posted this sooner, my memory is just too overloaded with school work. I took some picts though and I am sure you will recognize the speakers. Oh and I was able to hurry in and get us front row seats!!!!!!! One super funny moment from Friday night was when Priscilla sat down in a seat that had been reserved for special needs but was empty and when she got up, the sign was stuck to her pants. Saturday as I jumped out of the car to hurry in to go get good seats, my shoe strap snapped and I probably looked like a crazy woman hobbling into the convention center, we got decent seats, but not like the front row on Friday night. Kenneth cope performed a lot on Saturday, it was wonderful. Jeremy flew up to Vegas on Friday night to meet his dad and brothers in Vegas, they had a work/car convention there and enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as they enjoyed the all-you-can-eat sea food buffet on Saturday night, they all ate their weight in sea food. Saturday the guys all drove back to St. George and we spent the evening just visiting and catching up on life. It was great, I have such a wonderful family, I am truly blessed, I know some many people that can't stand there in-laws, and I love every single one of mine and there are a lot of them. Sunday we drove back home, it was nice getting to ride next to Jeremy in the car for hours without the kids fighting in the back. I have to say I missed the kids terribly though, but they had a fun time in Yuma with Grandma Sharon. It was such a great weekend and it helped me re-fill my cup, I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of a Father in Heaven who loves us more than we can even begin to imagine. An older brother who came to earth and gave his life for us so we could return to that loving Father in Heaven. I know that not all people have this knowledge and I can't even begin to imagine how they are able to handle the curves balls life throws at them without this innate knowledge that they are not alone in their trials. I am so blessed that God entrusted my two little children to me. I pray that they will always know how much I love them, but more importantly how much God and Jesus Christ love them, with that sure knowledge, they will hopefully make the right choices in their lives.

Glasses

2009-11-02T05:15:00.001-08:00

I got a couple comments about Skyler having glasses, that is my mistake, I didn't put the other Halloween picts on there. He had a Harry Potter costume and a little scar drawn on his forehead, if the picture of him with glasses on was closer up, you would see that there were no lenses in the glasses, he was using them for his Harry Potter costume! ;)

Few more Halloween Picts

2009-11-01T13:11:00.001-08:00

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has come and gone already! We had a lot of stuff going on this year. Kenzie was involved in a spooky dance at school with all the other deaf and hard-of-hearing kiddos. They did a dance to Thriller, using zombie costumes and black lights. The high school DHH kids came out as well and helped put on quite a show. My kinder class did a little poem/skit for intermission. It was a lot of fun, we had to perform it on Friday 6 times, so all the grades could watch. The kids enjoyed their school character parade and Fall Festival on Friday night. We went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday, Kenzie was Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ, and Skyler was a pirate and then had a last minute costume change into Harry Potter. Kenzie and Skyler were racing to the car on the way to the Trunk-or-Treat and Skyler accidentally pushed her and she did a massive face plant onto the road, she was pretty upset for about 45 minutes, she skinned her knee and got a nice shiner, so we had a rough start to our Halloween festivities, but all in all, it ended up being a nice night. Once we got home and got the kids to bed, Jeremy and I snuggled up and watched scary movies, which was so fun, but I paid the price with nightmares all night. I am such a big chicken! Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Still Alive

2009-09-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

Yes I am still alive, but at times feel I am a step away from death. Life has been busier than ever. I have been doing my best to juggle everything. I am able to keep up with work/school/family/and church, anything other than that has been set aside for the last couple months. I hope all my friends know how much I love them and miss them, even though it seems as though I have fallen off the face of the earth. So I also thought I should post a little about the happenings in our life. The kids started school last month, they are not diggin the fact that they have to wear uniforms everyday, but they are getting used to it. I think it is pretty laid back dress code, jean, khaki, or navy blue bottoms, maroon, or grey shirts, Kenzie is wearing a white one in this photo because I thought white was included in the dress code, but I was wrong. It was sad that a teacher at the school(me) had to get a note home saying that her child must come in uniform,OOPPS. Let's see what else? I am back in school full time, I am taking an audiology course, a language analysis course as well as a practicum. I am still doing auditory training with the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students, but the week before school started, a couple teachers quit and so a lot of shuffling had to be done, so I am also the kindergarten support teacher for the 5 DHH students, it has been a lot, but I am learning a lot as well. My sign language is definitely improving. Jeremy's health has continued to spiral out of control at times. We finally got my insurance through work so I was able to take Jeremy to a hospital in California, they were able to figure out a little more about what is going on. They even told us that had we not taken him there that by this time next year, he would have permanent brain damage. SO SCARYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully this new medication will help take care of his seizures and other issues. Please keep us in your prayers. He Will not like that I brought his health up, but we need all the prayers we can get. Hope you are all doing well and life is treating you good. We love and miss you all!

Laying it on Thick...

2009-07-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Before I forget the silly words that left my daughter's mouth tonight, I thought I would document them. I was putting her to bed and she was being exceptionally stubborn. She kept pinching my arm, and so I told her I wouldn't tell her a story about Crystal Waters, (her favorite saga that I have been making up for months). So I give her a hug and she is begging me to tell her her story. I said she needed to say her prayers because it was bed time. Here is a small portion of her prayer. "Heavenly Father, help me to be good and do what is right. Thank you for my wonderful dear mother who is so kind and dear. Please forgive me for pinching my gift, the gift which is my dear mother." I am serious, those were her exact words. I was trying so hard not to bust out laughing, I know those words were being expressed in hopes of earning her story back. So the big question, DID IT WORK? I am ashamed to admit it, but yes, I caved in and told her her story. What can I say, I am a sucker for her charm.

Our Fun Fourth of July

2009-07-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well our Fourth of July was pretty laid back this year. We just hung out as a family and watched movies part of the day and then we went to the Demolition Derby at the Fairgrounds later in the evening. The kids enjoyed eating watermelon there, watching Uncle Keith crash into lots of cars, and then of course the fireworks show. It was a great time, there was even a slight breeze to keep us from melting too much. Hope you all had a great 4th! Oh I don't want to do a whole post about this next thing, but our family went to Texas Roadhouse last month and put our names in the drawing for the nice BIG BBQ grill. I got a call that out of the several thousand names drawn, I was one of the 5 picked for the final drawing. So, Kenzie and I went down for dinner and the drawing, Jeremy was home in bed, he had yet another nasty seizure that morning and was not up to going out. Well, as you can guess since I am writing about it, we won the grill. We were so excited, I have been wanting a grill for a long time!!!!! It was funny because on Fast Sunday, Skyler wanted to fast that we would win it, we explained that that is not the type of thing to fast for, but he could have a prayer in his heart that maybe we would win it. So the night before the drawing it was Skyler's turn to say the family prayer, and he said this in his prayer. "Heavenly Father, we really want to win the BBQ grill, please help us to win it...unless someone else needs it more than us." I was so proud that he added that final comment to it. I went to the drawing excited, but knowing if we didn't win it, someone else probably needed it more. Needless to say, I was pretty happy that night when our name was drawn. Kenzie was singing and doing a happy dance about our "Beautiful BBQ Grill that we get to keep forever." It was funny. Well hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July, we are so blessed to live in a nation where we have our freedoms.

Better Late Than Never...

2009-07-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

We had a fun birthday party for Skyler this month, he is now 9-years-old. I know I always say this, but where has the time gone. I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. Now he likes to tell me things like, in three years I will get to pass the sacrament, or can you believe I will be on my mission in ten more years? Yikes, I don't want him to grow up so fast. One thing I can take comfort in is he still likes me to climb in his bed and chat with him each night, he still loves tickle monster, and he is not to the girl crazy stage yet. Lots of little girls like him, but he thinks that is so weird(I pray this lasts for many more years). Well he had a wonderful b-day, his guests were his cousin Kiley, Kyle and Benjamin T., Ian, Ethan, and his sister of course. They swam and then ate munchies and cheese burgers. For dessert, Skyler did not want cake, he is not a fan of cake, so we had ice cream sandwiches. I wanted to buy a cake so we could at least sing to him and he could blow out candles, but he came up with the idea of putting candles in his cheeseburger and having us sing to him that way instead, who was I to argue, he was the birthday boy. So when you see the picts of him blowing out the candles on the burger, don't be shocked. Anyways, I know the post is weeks late, but I wanted to be sure and have it included in our blog book. Skyler, you mean the world to me and I am so blessed that you chose me to be your mother. Don't grow up too fast, I love you!

Yes we are all still alive

2009-07-13T09:02:00.001-07:00

Wow, I have been away from the blogging world for a while. I was in Phoenix for 5 weeks taking a college course there, plus one online, so I have been an insanely busy lady for the past month. Plus during that time, (I was home on weekends) I packed up our condo, and we moved to a house out by the school where I work, so this month has literally flown by. I have to send a huge thank you out to my mom who offered to come watch my kiddos M-Th during my courses. I stayed at her house in Queen Creek and she stayed in our gross condo here in Yuma. I owe her big time. My kids have never been with her like that and they loved the time they got to spend with her. She is such a wonderful grandma, the kids favorite things to do with her were to go swimming and play tickle monster. Thanks mom for all you sacrificed for us so I could get this course over with. I have so many posts I need to catch up on, but since I do not want to live on the computer any more than I have to, since I am starting another online course today, I will just fill you in on a couple of highlights from the month.

We are looking for a new rental??????

2009-05-31T08:02:00.000-07:00

Jeremy and I have had enough of our condo living. Yes it is cheap, but we are ready for a little more room. I am a little tired of having to open the fridge every time I need to get in the dish washer. Jeremy wants to leave because he had such awful health in this place and wants a fresh start. So this is going out to everyone in Yuma in hopes that you may know someone trying to rent a house. It doesn't need to be anything spectacular, just a house with a backyard(preferably with grass). We are looking to stay under a thousand a month, even if it is $995, that sounds better than $1000. We do own a small dog, but she is potty trained and all. We found a four bedroom in Rancho Sereno for $1000. we couldn't call on it yet though because we just found it yesterday and of course no realty office is going to be open and show a rental on that day. Anyways, just keep your ears open for us please!!!

Randy and Jessica Came to Visit!

2009-05-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, my brother Randy and his wife Jessica came for a little visit. We swam and I made a nice dinner, then Randy showed off his skills on his new guitar while the kids just soaked up every minute of them. We were sad the visit was so short, but so grateful they made a detour that landed them in Yuma for the day. It was the first time MaKenzie was able to meet aunt Jessica and she just loved her. She talked about her Aunt Jessica for days. Hopefully they will come visit again next summer with their kids too. Plane tickets from Alaska are pretty pricey though. Anyways, we loved our visit and are so grateful for such a wonderful family! Thanks for coming guys!

My Mother's Day Present to Myself

2009-05-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have always loved reading the interviews people do with their children and since it was Mother's Day today, I decided to finally do one with my kids and hear what they have to say about me. So here we go...

What is your favorite memory you have with mom?
Skyler-Going to the park everyday, which will never happen again because I am in school now.
Makenzie- It's my game you have that you took to school to work with your kids with.
Alison- no not the game Memory, what is the funnest thing you remember doing with your mom?
Kenzie-It was at Disneyland, it was so fun that it makes me say YIPEE YAY, I love Disneyland, it's the funnest thing ever in my whole life.

What's one thing Mom always says?
Makenzie- I love you, you say that A LOT!
Skyler-It could either be "No" or "I love you."

What nickname does mom usually call you?
MaKenzie- Kenzie Benzie, no just Kenzie and that is all.
Skyler-You call me your little buddy.

What is your favorite meal I make?(I promise I make real food, but my kids are not fond of the good stuff, they are just like I was when I was a kid, only my favorite was pasta and cereal.)
Skyler- Ramon, no actually I always cook that, but the one you cook is Alfredo.
MaKenzie- I have two, oatmeal, and pasta, oh wait, I actually have three, oatmeal, pasta, and pasta salad.

What is your favorite thing about mom?
MaKenzie-That I love her and she loves me, that she is always so kind and sweet to me.
Skyler-My favorite thing about mom is that she is nice and she loves me.

What is your favorite song mom sings to you?
Skyler- I have no idea
MaKenzie- I have no idea too.
Skyler- Don't copy me MaKenzie.
Alison-Seriously guys, what song?
MaKenzie- Bow Bow Bow Yipee Yow Yippee Yay (from 102 Dalmatians,)How about write You Are My Sunshine Underneath.

What is the silliest thing Mom does?
Skyler-Trips and falls alot.
MaKenzie-The part where you say, "Ewww, I see something under your armpit, let me see, let me see!" Then when I lift up my arm you tickle it, that's pretty silly.
Skyler- Can we finish this interview already and play Tickle Monster???

What are the three most important things to mom?
MaKenzie- The gospel, us, and Jesus.
Skyler- Us, our family, and the gospel.

What makes Mom sad?
Skyler-Us when we fight.
MaKenzie-When we're naughty and when both of my grandpas died, Grandpa Lloyd, and Grandpa Kent, that made you really sad, huh?

What does Mom do that you hope you can do when you grow up?
MaKenzie- Be a Mom
Skyler- Have a job, have money, and buy a real cell phone.

Any final things you want to tell me on this Mother's Day?
Skyler- I love you and that's all and thank you for being me mom.
MaKenzie- We love you forever and forever, no matter what happens in your life.

Thanks kids, I love you both more than words can say, I hope you both always remember that. I will always be here for you, I hope you will come to me throughout your lives when times are rough, when you are struggling, when you are happy, when the world gets you down. I would do anything for you both, I know there will come a day when you don't always want me right there beside you holding your hand, when you don't want me to snuggle with you at bedtime, when you that day comes I will read back over this interview and remember these times and wait for whatever phase you are going through to pass, I assure you it will. I still want to talk to my mom everyday, I still hold her hand, and I cherish the times we snuggle up on the couch and chat for hours. One of the greatest gifts I have been given is the gift of a loving mother who taught me the gospel, who taught me that I am a child of God, who loved me unconditionally and helped me and who continues to help me through all the ups and downs in life. Again I love you both so much, I love not only my mom, but all the mom figures I have had in my life to help me become the mother I am today. Happy Mother's Day!

A few Easter picts

2009-04-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

We had a nice Easter. We celebrated at Grandma Devey's on Saturday night, we had a little egg hunt for the kids and as always, delicious food from our wonderful Grandma! The kids had fun finding eggs, and eating candy. On Sunday at 1:38 am I had to go take Skyler's Easter basket away and make him go back to bed. The kids loved their candy and toys left by the big bunny himself. I made a yummy breakfast and then we headed off to church. Jeremy spoke in Sacrament meeting, he gave a wonderful talk. After church, we came home to find Easter grass all over the house. We shut the kids doors before we left, but Skyler's door does not latch, so our wonderful dog Annie decide to eat every last piece of his mountain of candy, i take that back, there was a single Whopper hidden amongst the debris. He was so sad, luckily our lifesaver Grandma Devey had left over candy so I swung by their house and brought some back home to Skyler. Jeremy was not feeling well after church, but by bedtime he was able to get up and he wanted to make the steak and shrimp we bought, so I put it on the skewers and he grilled it, unfortunately our meal did not cook right for some reason and so we just tried to eat it and ended up laughing about the whole thing and ended up ditching the meat and eating the yams. It ended up being a bit of a stressful day with Jeremy being sick and the dog/candy drama, but we just had to tell ourselves and our children that none of that stuff really mattered, what really mattered was that it was the day of remembering our Savior and his Resurrection. All the rest is just fun stuff that doesn't really matter in the long run. I promised Skyler he would look back on this Easter and laugh one day. Thank goodness they had a blast at Grandma's last night.

Free Princess DVD

2009-04-11T09:45:00.001-07:00

For anyone interested, Fisher-Price is giving away a free DVD. I think it is to introduce their new Precious Places line. It is on backorder now and will take 12-14 weeks to get one, but hey...it's free!

http://www.fisher-price.com/pages/v6/default/preciousplaces/landing.asp

Spring Break 2009!

2009-04-05T19:40:00.001-07:00

Daddy and MaKenzie in front of us on one of the fair rides

Kenzie enjoying the science center at the fair~

Skyler and Johnny on the Sizzler or Scrambler whatever you want to call it, SKyler ran to me afterwards shouting "Mom, mom, we survived!"

Little Brynnie-Brynn-Brynn putting her Daddy in a big bubble, she had a blast!

Grandpa, Johnny, and Skyler~

My handsome man dreaming of a yummy steak dinner!

Two of the cutest boys in the whole world, not looking forward to them turning 16

Makenzie, Kiley, and Reagan

What a stud going down the superslide with his little girl!

Chain of cousins, Makenzie, Brynn, Reagan, Kiley, Johhny, and Skyler

Skyler and Kenzie looking at the fair livestock~

Skyler and Johnny soaking themselves at the castle park~

Cousins MaKenzie, Kiley, and Reagan

Johnny and Skyler hangin out on the plane~

Grandma Priscilla with the two newest Devey grandaughters Lila and Reagan

Cousins-Reagan, Johnny, Kiley, Skyler, and Kenzie, hanging out and being silly~

Kids lovin on their grandma~

I always take a picture of mom and the kids before she leaves back for Queen Creek~

Trying to get a pict of me, mom, Skyler, and Kenz, we got parts of all of us, so I guess we can say we did it.

I thought I would post a few of our highlights from Spring Break, then I will post a million pictures:
*Family movie night, Monsters vs. Aliens
*Grandma Sharon came for four days
*Daily bike/scooter rides to the park
*Most of the Devey cousins came for a few days
*Yuma County Fair with cousins
*Trampoline at Grandma Deveys everyday!
*Cubscout day camp for Skyler
*Shopping/girls day for Mom and Kenzie
*Fishing Derby for Skyler and Dad and Devey boys
*General Conference
*Jeremy's cousin Melanie's wedding reception-so fun!
*Chile Pepper, need I say more...
*FAMILY TIME GALORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and just so I always remember when I read my blog book, cousin Alex almost started a fire with a candle and a napkin at a fancy wedding reception, it was a close one, hehehe. Oh and another one, one of the grandkids spun around in the computer chair and puked all over Cassie F. while she and Aunt Melissa were babysitting for us while we were at the wedding reception, good times, good times. We had such a wonderful time, I am so sad thinking about the kids going back to school tomorrow and me going back to work, we had such a nice time staying up later than usual and just having fun. I am also so sad that Dru and her family went back to Utah this morning and all the other family members left too, I know times like these when we all get together are times our kiddos will NEVER FORGET!! Oh and just so I always remember when I read my blog book, cousin Alex almost started a fire with a candle and a napkin at a fancy wedding reception, it was a close one, he, he, he, oh and another one of the grandkids spun around in the computer chair and puked all over Cassie F. while she and Aunt Melissa were babysitting for us while we were at the wedding reception, good times, good times.

A few highlights of the month

2009-03-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately that I have not had a chance to post about anything going on in our lives. I thought I would give a little update since I have a couple hours before church and the house is relatively calm right now. First of all the kiddos are loving their new school. Skyler's teacher is Miss Babbs and Makenzie's teacher is Miss Roche, they are both great! MaKenzie loves that there is a big golden retriever that lives in her classroom, I think that helped her adjust to her class rather quickly. Since Skyler is doing so well in his subjects, he was invited to join the gardening club. He LOVES this, he gets to leave his class for an hour a couple times a week and go outside and move rocks, shovel dirt and plant flowers and vegetables and such. For those of you who know Skyler anything involving dirt, bugs, rocks, is his favorite pastime. I am working full time now, because we really need better insurance since ours from Jeremy's work refuses to cover anything to do with Kenzie's hearing loss. Also with Jeremy's rough health with his seizures and all, we owe thousands to the lovely hospital here. So, it is definitely good that soon we will have insurance from my work, apparently it is extremely good! School for me is going great so far, it is very time consuming, but in a couple of days when April comes I will be able to say "next month, I will have one semester down and four more to go!" I can't wait to learn more, I would not be too thrilled if this was a masters any any other area. I feel that what I am learning now is preparing me for a lot of things I will be dealing with in MaKenzie's education and throughout her life. Jeremy is doing better now, he had a rough couple of weeks following a nasty seizure, but his medication has been changed up again and he seems to be doing better. Let's see what else...Oh Kenzie got a bead stuck way down in her ear. It was when she was in bed one night, she came running out of her room dripping in sweat and crying saying, "MOM I PUT A BEAD IN MY EAR AND NOW IT IS STUCK IN MY EAR CANAL!" My first thought was, "if you are smart enough to say ear canal, you are too big to be putting things in your ear! Anyways, to make a long story short, the DR. at Urgent Care said she would need to go to her pediatrician the following day and have the bead vacuumed out. When we got home Kenzie asked me to say a prayer that she would be OK, so I did, then I got an idea, I would never do this if I thought she wouldn't hold completely still, but Jeremy shone a flashlight in her ear and I broke a bobby pin and gently stuck it in her ear and fished it out. I got it on the first try and didn't even touch her ear, it was a bead that had a hole in the middle, so was able to just pull it right out!!!!!!!!!!! I was so relieved and then Kenz promised she would NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER... put anything in her ears again except for her ear mold for her hearing aid. Lets see what else? Skyler had his first Cub scout day camp and had a blast learning how to shoot a BB gun, bow and arrow, and he also carved a boot out of a bar of soap. The kids both participated in a bike rodeo at their school and Skyler won a $50.00 gift certificate to Mr. B's Bicycle Shop. We have flown kites a couple of windy evenings, we went and saw Monsters vs. Aliens, and have just enjoyed our time together as a family! Well I am sad that this little post is all I have to show for our last month. I feel bad because I used to post about everything, but with working now, and going to school. I feel it is more important for me to play with the kids rather than write about them everyday, I will do my best to recap the months adventures. Hope you are all having a wonderful March, we are so excited because tomorrow is our first day of Spring Break!

Jeremy getting ready to show that dollar store kite who is boss!

Kenzie running like the wind, trying to fly her kite!

Skyler before heading off to the bike rodeo, he was so excited to win the $50 gift certificate!

Skyler enjoying a little tree climbing, he really is half monkey!

Kenzie after informing me that she had a bead stuck in her ear canal!

So Long Palmcroft, You Served Us Well...

2009-03-08T22:51:00.001-07:00

I feel horrible about changing the kids school so late in the year, but I think it will be a positive change. I wanted post pictures of them with their teacher. I think this is the only picture I have of Skyler with one of his teachers, but she is one that will go down in the books. I think I posted about moving Skyler out of is freaky, chemically imbalanced, teacher Mr. Minnick's class at the beginning of the year. Mr. Minnick had really hampered Skyler's learning and had placed some pretty harsh labels on him. So when Miss Townsend welcomed him into her 3rd grade classroom, he rekindled his love for learning and school. She helped him become a much better writer and instilled in him a love of poetry. He can recite many of Robert Frost, and Emily Dickenson's poems, he also has emerged into a little poet himself. He wrote the cutest poem for his teacher, I will have to post it on here one of these days. He is excited to go to the school I am teaching at, but his only concern is that he will never have another teacher like Miss Townsend. Some of the things he LOVES about her is she would give him sea shells to keep, she always gave him hugs when she saw him, and was constantly telling him what a smart little guy he was. We will miss her. We will also miss MaKenzie's teacher Miss Gauna, she has been teaching Kinder for years and really loves her students, she has the patience of an angel and wore her FM System for Kenzie everyday without fail. Kenzie is so excited to start out at her new school tomorrow too. She was saying her prayers tonight and asked Heavenly Father to help her not get nervous or scared tomorrow and that the kids would like her and want to be friends. So hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow, I am a nervous wreck. Anytime I think about them starting at a big new school, I get teary. I just thought it would be easier to do it now and recognize a few faces next year when they attend there rather than worry the whole summer whether or not they will have nice teachers, make friends, find their way around, etc. Good luck to us all!

FHE Fishing for...

2009-02-23T19:42:00.001-08:00

So tonight after Jeremy got home from work, we had a picnic at the park and went fishing at the little pond there. Well, we didn't catch any fish but here are a couple pictures of what Jeremy did catch with his pole. The kids loved the turtles, and one turtle, after an hour of being lugged around by Skyler, decided he LOVED Skyler too, so much that he took a small piece of his belly with him back to the pond. Skyler was screaming so loud because the turtle had his little jaw locked on his belly. Once we got the turtle off the belly Skyler was ready to let him go. Skyler's belly pict doesn't do his wound justice, it is sad, we keep telling Skyler to "embrace the bite," I mean seriously, how many people can say they have had a turtle bite their belly???? It was a great night!

Skyler's Review of The Giving Tree~

2009-02-21T19:50:00.001-08:00

This paper makes me so happy to read. I just got it back from school. He wrote it in November, but his teacher wanted to keep it for a while. She said it brought her to tears, just how grown up it sounded. He wrote this all on his own! As you can see, Skyler was blessed with mine and Jeremy's "lovely" handwriting skills, poor kiddo! I typed the content below since it is hard to read on the computer.

"The Giving Tree a ficticious story by Shel Silverstein is a fabulous book about a lifelong relationship between a needy, greedy, selfish boy and an unselfish tree. This story takes place outside in a forest. The events unfold from the boys life beginning at boyhood moving all the way to his senior years.

This story has a wonderful moral with a great lesson to be learned. I honestly cherished this story because it makes you think about the different stages of life, and what the years may bring to a person. When I read this story it reminded me of the pilgrims, They had to pay heavy taxes to the King. I recomend this book to anyone who likes to read about friendship.
P.S. It also reminded me of my mom" By Skyler Devey

Birthday Bowling

2009-02-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

MaKenzie getting ready to bowl for the first time!

Skyler quite proud of his score!

Me not really wanting my picture taken!

Jeremy trying to fake a nice smile for me.

MaKenzie enjoying her night of birthday bowling!

As I mentioned in the last post, we went bowling on Kenzie's birthday, so here are a few picts from the night. Jeremy, being the great dad he is, went because it was her birthday, but he had to really try not to fall over with dizziness and stuff, poor guy, he has been really sick. So here is Kenzie's first bowling trip ever, Skyler went once before with cubscouts.

A few days late...

2009-02-06T15:41:00.001-08:00

MaKenzie in her birthday outfit, six years old!

MaKenzie striking a pose

My sweet little Skyler on the go!

Monkey bar champ!

Mia and Kendra

Shelly and Claire

Pinata time~

Grandma Pricsilla and cousin Lila~

MaKenzie opening her gifts~

MaKenzie with her Aunt Angie and cousins Lila, Kiley and Jason

I have been so busy lately with school, work, Jeremy's health, and a million other things that I have not posted for my sweet little girls 6th birthday. Yes you read that right my baby is now six years old. I can't believe it, where have these years gone!!!!!!!! She had a great birthday, I made her cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then the kids went to school. Her teacher gave her a birthday crown and a pencil, she was excited. I brought her two balloons when I picked her up and she was so excited, then she gave one of the balloons to her friend so she would feel happy too. We met my friend Shelly Harris and her kiddos, Angela Titensor and her kiddos, Aunt Angie and her kids, and Grandma Devey, at the Yuma Wetlands park(the coolest park ever!) We had cupcakes, juice and a had a pinata, mainly the kids just played and us girls visited. After the party, our family went bowling. I was completely shocked by how freakin expensive it was. I haven't been since high school. It cost almost $50. for one game and shoes. So as much as the kids enjoyed it, we won't be doing that again. All in all it was a great day,a long day, but a good one. I tried to talk Kenzie into letting us celebrate this weekend, but she said that would be embarrassing because it wouldn't really be her birthday. Kenzie didn't want her day to end. I remember feeling that way when I was a kid. Anyways, Happy Birthday my beautiful little girl, I hope you know how much you mean to our family, WE LOVE YOU!

The Hillarious Workings of MaKenzie's Mind

2009-01-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

So this whole weekend I was away in Tucson learning about how insane the next two and a half years are going to be in the University of Arizona Master's program. My sweet husband was at home taking care of my two kiddos who happened to get sick on Friday after I left. A special thank you to my mother-in-law, Priscilla, who picked the kids up from school on Thursday and Friday and even cancelled her visiting teaching appointments to do so, now that is LOVE! Anyways, Jeremy told me a few funny things Kenzie said while I was away. They went to a wedding at the church on Saturday, Grampa Wayne performed the ceremony for this couple. Jeremy told Kenzie that Grampa was marrying Kim and Kenny, Kenzie got really upset and said, "but then that means grampa won't be married to Grandma anymore." He explained it and then Kenzie thought it was funny that she thought that. Then the bride gave Kenzie a little bouquet and later that night at home Skyler found her bouquet stuffed into her desk, he pulled it out and Kenzie freaked out and said, "DON"T TAKE THAT OUT, I DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO SEE IT, I DON"T WANT PEOPLE TO THINK I MIGHT BE MARRIED!" She is such a little character.

OK you may notice that my posting will not be as often as it used to, I will do my best to keep posting, but since I will be living on this computer half the day doing my schooling and also working, I don't want to be on here for fun as much. I will miss you all, but promise to check out your blogs and add to mine at least a couple times a month!
A special note to Sabra, you are my hero, I can't believe you are able to do grad school with your little munchkins at home during the day!

Back to school

2009-01-11T15:49:00.001-08:00

So tomorrow is the big day, I start classes towards my Master's degree in Deaf Ed. I will also start working for AZ Southwest Regional Co-op's School for the Deaf and Blind. It will be a lot of work, but also very rewarding, I can't wait to get started, wish me luck!!!!

Five Minutes With Mary...

2008-12-21T15:10:00.000-08:00

In church our Relief Society teacher wanted us to think about what we would say if we had five minutes with Mary, the mother of our Savior. So, I was thinking about it; what would I ask her, what would I say to the sweet woman who raised the Son of God. So the more I thought about it, the more I just wished I could thank her for devoting her life to raising the Savior. I can't even begin to imagine the heart ache she felt through out much of her life as she witnessed others mocking, persecuting and ultimately crucifying her son. So I wrote a little poem as I was trying to think of what I would say if I were able to talk with her, to sit with her face to face, to ask her whatever I wanted to ask her. So here are my thought...

Mary
On that dark blessed night with the light of the star,
people came searching from near and from far.

To see the sweet babe in your earthly care,
sleeping sound in the manger, oh the load he'd soon bare.

How did it feel to hold that sweet child,
flesh of our father, so meek and so mild?

Did you know what would would become of your precious son?
The Lord of Heaven and Earth, God's chosen one?

How your heart must have ached with pain and with grief
when he went out in a world stained with sin and unbelief.

Oh Mary, sweet Mary, chosen mother of the Lamb,
you raised the Savior who would raise all Man.

Oh, if I could sit down beside you and tell you face to face
of how much I admire you for your courage and your grace.

I would love to hear the stories that only a Mother could tell
about what it was like to raise the child, Christ the Lord, Emanuel.

I ache with the pain you must have felt, to experience such great loss,
for a mother to witness her loving son hanging on a cross.

You were chosen for his mother because of your virtue, strength, and love
Entrusted with God's child from the Royal Courts above.

From his birth till his death you were his mother so true
Mary, from one mother to another, I give my deepest thanks to you.
By, Alison Devey

School Christmas Program

2008-12-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

I videoed a lot of the program, so I forgot to take any pictures of my little Reindeer MaKenzie. She had a great time on stage, after ever song they sang, she would turn to the boy next to her and ask him if her red nose came off, it was just lipstick on her nose, but she kept touching it, it was pretty funny. Skyler had his program the second night and was in a special play called It's Christmas on Candy Cane Lane." It was very cute, he was an Evergreen Tree in it! I had to also post the pictures of my kids in the car ride over. You can tell that Skyler is crying in the picture. If you are wondering why he was so sad, just look at the picture of his sister and you can probably guess, she was being a little pill!!!!!!!!!

Ward Christmas Party

2008-12-16T12:28:00.001-08:00

Last Friday night was our ward Christmas party, it was great. They had wonderful, the primary sang Away in a Manger, and Kenzie was asked to be "Mary" in it. She was thrilled to pieces and she sang parts of the song very loud. Here are a few picts. Skyler is not in many of the picts because he is a hater of the camera. Kenzie is total opposite and LOVES being in picts. Oh Kenzie asked Santa for make-up and told him she would only wear it at home. Skyler asked for a DS and then smiled winked at me. This is his first year where "he knows." I miss his enthusiasm and excitement over Santa. Childhood just goes way too fast.

Week of Fun~

2008-11-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

Sam, Mom, Ali, Nicky and baby Deegan

Uncle Sam with his nieces and Nephews

Makenzie, Timmy, and Kelvin

Kelvin, Grandma, Reagan, Jack, and MaKenzie on the couch watching Wally

Granny and MaKenzie

This week Jeremy's sister Dru came to Yuma with her kids. We had a great time full of visiting, cousin sleep overs, and the park. On Wed. I turned 30 which was kind of depressing for me, but all in all I don't feel too much different than I did when I was 29. We spent the day at Bridgette's house hanging out and eating of course. Jeremy rode up to Phoenix with his Dad after they got off work, it was so nice to finally have him here, I don't know if it was becasue it was my b-day or what, but I was missing him so bad all day. We ended up staying hte night at Sara and Davin's house and then heading out to my mom's early the next morning. Jeremy took Skyler and my brother Sam, who flew in from Colorado, on a hike out by my mom's somewhere. MaKenzie just enjoyed the quiet of Grandma's house and playing with the school house and McDonalds playset that I used to play with when I was a kid. It is fun watching my kids play with toys that I did when I was little. Nicky and her little family came over right before it was time to eat. Kenzie had fun with her cousins. Poor Skyler doesn't have anyone in my family his age, so he just hung out, but he had the whole week with his other cousins, so he can deal with it for a day. Anyways, Mom outdid herself with her delicious appetizers, huge feast and great pie! She is such an amazing person. I was so glad we could be with her this Thanksgiving. We drove back to Yuma after we ate dinner, we unpacked, got the kids to bed and then I worked out because I blew it big time on Wed and Thursday. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and were surrounded by the people you love!

Twilight Night!

2008-11-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

Ok so this post may seem a little jumbled, but I am SUPER tired. Last night was the Twilight Midnight release.Usually I wouldn't ever go to a midnight showing, but my friends Sabra and Shannon put on this great tailgate/pre-show party. It was full of friends, food, and prizes. I sat with my good friend Shelly and we had a great time! Obviously they can't fit an amazing book into two hours of footage, but they did a pretty good job! My favorite part of the night was when one of my awsome friends Stephanie won one of the prizes, it was a life sized cardboard cutout of Edward! It was so hilarious, you just have to know Stephanie, she is the funnest person ever. She is going through some extremely difficult trials that most of us could never even begin to imagine. Seeing her smile and hearing her scream and run up to her cardboard man was priceless. Another highlight of the Twilight night was just seeing old friends I haven't seen in a long time. There is a pict of me and Shelly, my friend Natalie and her sister Jana, my friend Angela and her family, and of course Stephanie and "Edward".Oh I don't think I mentioned that the girls who through this big bash actually rented out our own theater, it was great. Anyways, I have had 2 hours of sleep and I think I am actually going to go take a nap, I have not done that in years, but my bed is literally calling my name. Thanks girls for all your hard work getting this party together!

Random kid picts

2008-11-18T09:28:00.001-08:00

Here are a few picts of the kiddos, you may notice that I usually have so many picts of Kenzie and not too many of Skyler, just so you know why, it is because Skyler is not a fan of getting his picture taken while Kenz LOVES having her picture taken!