Nila's Birthday Post #1

So - today my sweet little Nila turns 6 years old. I've been receiving phone calls this morning from people wishing her a happy birthday and I'm trying to be happy, but part of me is a little sad too. Let me explain.... Besides the fact that I am a little sad that she's growing up, this day has some pretty intense memories for me. Every year on Nila's birthday I cry (just a little bit) when I remember all of the emotions I experienced the day she was born. The fear, the helplessness, the grief when I saw this tiny, sick little baby....
Then, after that little pitty party I look at all the blessings we've received since this little spirit came into our lives. We love you Nila Bug! Happy Birthday!

The Missing Kitty is Found!

Just thought I would do a quick update and let you all know that our renegade cat was found and returned to us. Kamryn was so excited and is checking on her almost hourly. Kalani and I also believe said renegade to be pregnant! Either that or she was very well fed in the 5 days that she was missing... I guess we'll know soon enough!

Who knew I'd be so sad over a cat!

So we have this little kitty named Jinx. Let me rephrase that... we HAD this little kitty named Jinx. Jinx has come up missing. I was never big on the idea of getting a cat, but we decided that Kamryn would love her and love her she does. For the past two days my heart has ached whenever my daughter looks at me and says, "Mommy... where Jinx?" or "I wanna go see Jinx!" And just what exactly do you tell a 2-year old when you tell her that Jinxy isn't outside and said 2-year old gets teary saying "OH NO! Her runned away!" I've checked outside frequently for the last two days.. no Jinxy. I hate seeing Kami sad and just don't know what to do about it. I hate feeling helpless as a mom. Because, sure, I could go & get her another kitten, but she'd know it wasn't Jinx. Would another cat let Kami pack it around (sometimes by the head) and not scratch her? Who knows.... possibly Jinx will miss us too & decide to come home!

A Month Almost Already? Really???

Ok, ok, so I realize that it has been a bit since I last posted on here. Why? Well... I'll get back to you on that one. We've had a lot going on, but I don't even know that that's a good excuse. All I can say is that I solemnly swear to try my extra hardest to do better. Does the fact that I've been making raspberry jam, bottling peaches, freezing peaches.............bottling salsa and bottling stewed tomatoes help get me off the hook? I don't believe that it got me off the hook for not doing housework, so I don't know why I would possibly think it would for blog neglect either! Ah well, what can I say? Here are a few pics of what we've been up to this last month. Enjoy!

*Quick Note: I realize that there are no pictures of

Nila-Bug. She is now going to school all day and these

particular activities occured while she was there. PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

Back in the Swing of Things

Ok - so its official. All of our summer fun is finally come to an end. (Note: This doesn't mean that fall fun isn't just around the corner!) We got back from Lake Powell about a week ago. We had so much fun with all of our family and hated to leave. We are a bunch of dorks but we have fun together, so what could be better than that???

Makayla, Darius & Rendan hangin' in the houseboat.

Glen & Teri... awwww... sweet!

Alan & Hunter showing us why bathing in the lake is superior to the houseboat... I'll take the houseboat!

The boys: Ian, Darius, Jonathan & Max.

Kalani showing off his LOVELY white legs & Glen, I'm sure, wondering how he got stuck on this boat with all these crazy people!

Jonathan ... need I say more? ;D

Max, Kamryn, Darius & I just doing what we do best.....

The girls were cute! Nila loved splashing in the water on the beach and Kami liked to watch everyone wake board (although she was quite concerned whenever anyone fell down.)

Cute girls! Kamryn & Lacie.

Amy driving "the boys"

Stephanie and I attempted to wake board and actually got up! (She's the pic on the top & I'm the bottom.) I crashed pretty hard too.... definately need to practice some more! (Sheesh.... was I commenting on Kalani's white legs!!???!!!)

Kalani didn't attempt the wake board, but we had a blast watching Alan try to buck him off the tube. Seriously, all I have to do is picture it and it makes my day better!

Nila only went out on the ski boat once and, after sniffling through the whole experience, I decided that she'd been tortured enough and allowed her to stay on the house boat for the remainder of the trip. Please also note her stroller (which she kept trying to slide out of) is, after numerous nightmares of her being pushed off the boat in it, fully equipped to not sink like a rock in the lake ... (thanks Kalani!)

Thank you so much Grandma & Grandpa for taking us all on such a fun trip. You guys are awesome and we love you so much!

Quick Check-In

So - I've realized that this summer I have let my blog totally fall behind. Just wanted to do another check in. I thought that I would be posting a little more often after I got over the Guitar Hero Aerosmith newness....... Well..... That would be when the book Breaking Dawn (from the Twilight series if you didn't know) came out and I was obsessed with finishing that! I've since read it twice and am starting to wind down a bit. We've been having a fun summer (when we haven't been sick! - which was most of June and half of July.) We've taken the girls camping, fishing, out to Gma Nae's for UBIC, been to numerous firework shows. Its been a blast. We are now preparing for school to start. Nila starts school on Wednesday the 20th and I thought I was ready. Well, needless to say that when the bus driver called and told me Nila's pick up was at 7:30am and drop off was at 4:30pm I hung up and immediately began to hyperventilate! I can't believe that she is going to be gone all day. I am going to miss her so much and Kamryn isn't going to know what to do with just me here. One positive is that I will have a little bit more time to get things done. We'll hope that we're all ok with this big change! We are also preparing to go to Lake Powell for a week so that's keeping us busy. Hopefully after Nila starts school life will slow down a titch and I'll get back to updating this blog and posting pics on a regular basis. Til then hope this little gem gives you a laugh. I'm not quite sure what Kami's emotions were on this

water slide? You decide! :D

Sucked in by Guitar Hero Aerosmith!

Ok - so we are still all alive and well.... just being a super huge slacker with my blog!!! I think that the weekend after my last blog post sickness hit our household, AGAIN! In the last 2 weeks we all four tested positive for strep throat. So.... after getting all of us on antibiotics we are FINALLY doing well (cross my fingers & knock on wood!) In the meantime Kalani bought me the newest version of Guitar Hero (yes, I know, I'm a total geek.... don't care..... I love this game!) and I've been strumming my guts out. Teri - you've gotta come and play this with me! I've come to realize that this particular game (as well as the previous Guitar Hero - Legends of Rock) when the sound is cranked up and I'm totally jammin' really alleviates a bit of stress. Next game I have my sights on.... Rock Band (since they've finally released it for the Wii). Hmmm..... wonder if any of my housework will get done???

I'm Really Here!

Hi everyone! Yes, we're all still here. We've had some craziness the last few weeks and I haven't even thought about updating my blog. Kamryn had a horrid stomach bug that lasted for almost a week. Poor little girl just slept on the floor and watched tv. I couldn't even hardly get her to smile. The week after that I was running around trying to get us packed to go campin for 5 days for the Thacker reunion. Then last week I got the bug while we were up at the Thacker reunion camping. Lemme tell you, sickness and camping DON'T mix. Thank goodness I had Kalani and my wonderful family to take care of my kids. Hopefully life will get a little bit back to normal this week and I can download some cute pics off my new camera (that I got for Mother's Day) and get them posted. Hope everyone is having a fun summer!

To My Darling Uncle Al....

........ and the other people I love that are not on my "other folks we kinda like" list. I would love to add your link and put you at the top of my list.....however you have no blog. If you do have one email me the link and I'll gladly add u to my list. Now to Alan, if you would like to create one with the emailed details you sent me I would be quite happy to add you. :D In apology I'd like to give you one of these handy, dandy (and quite spiffy if I do say so myself) Pirates television sets. Everyone that doesn't know why Alan may want this TV (and that's most of you) will just have to remain clueless for now. ;) Truely a bummer that every time I open my blog I get to see Cap'n Jack smirking at me....breaks my heart.... truely..... or not. Um... and Al..... don't wait too long for that TV to show up on your doorstep.... it will probably be lost in shipping. By the way... Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Big Sigh of Relief

So... I had to take a couple minutes (before I pass out from exhaustion) to do a little Nila update. We spent the day up at Primary Children's today and everything is wonderful! Nila received botox injections in her legs and her left arm to help her muscles relax. Many of you know that we've been quite concerned that she hasn't been growing at all since July of 2007. We've been talking to her doctors about having to place a feeding tube in her little tummy.... and quite frankly we really didn't want to have to do it. Well, good news, she's gained almost 3 pounds since March. We spent about 2 hours with the clinic that does the feeding tubes, nutrition, feeding issues, etc. and they think that right now she is doing great and doesn't need it. We'll just keep feeding her all of the fattening food she can handle and make sure she gets her nightly Haagen Dazs. (I'm quite jealous of the nightly Haagen Dazs!!) We've also been worried about her hips being pulled out of joint with her muscle tone. Today we got the results of her hip x-ray and she's looking totally normal there. I wanted to sit down and cry with relief today. I'm so proud of Nila. She works so hard for all the baby steps she makes in life and does it (almost always) with a sweet little smile on her face.