Stadium Of Fire 2010

Just another one of the many perks of working for APX -
field seats at the Stadium of Fire.

A few of my favorite things:
* Jenny Oaks Baker - Holy cow that girl can play the violin!

* Awesome Fireworks - who doesn't love fireworks to the Music Man?

* Carrie Underwood Live - My first concert and at only 18 rows from the front it was awesome!

A few things I didn't like:

* The annoying girl in front of us that wouldn't stop standing on her chair...

* The speakers were so loud my ears were ringing for days
(does that make me old?)

* The fireworks that shot into the seats about 10 feet from us. A few injuries (minor), screaming, and police everywhere kind of puts a damper on a fireworks finale.

All in all it was a fabulous experience. Thanks Tessa for watching the boys, thanks Mike for a fun date, and thanks APX for the free tickets!

Irony of the Broken Toe

Yesterday I spent nearly 3 hours on the phone working on medical bills.

One of my phone calls was to an urgent care clinic that I had over payed. When I asked about a refund, the receptionist said, "Normally what we do is keep the money for the next time that you come in." And I said, "I don't really think that we will be coming in anytime soon. So if you wouldn't mind sending out a refund check instead, that would be great. "

It was during my last call, while Korben and Logan were watching a movie, that I heard Korben screaming. I don't know what he did, but he was in agony and in between sobs was saying that his foot hurt. I tried to touch it to assess the damage but he would scream and flinch away if I got near it. I figured he had just jammed it pretty good so had him lay down and he promptly fell asleep.

When Mike got home a few hours later Korben was still saying his foot hurt and wouldn't let Mike look at it either. Since Korben wouldn't even walk on it, we thought it would be best to take him to the clinic and make sure he was okay. Yup, the same clinic that I had called earlier saying I wanted my refund....how's that for irony?

When I was asked to pay the copay, I got to explain that I was the person that had called in earlier asking for a refund- oh yeah, and would it be possible to apply that money to the copay still? The billing lady made sure that I knew she had already processed a check, but they did let me apply the credit...crow sufficiently eaten.

After a checkup and two x-rays, the diagnosis was a badly compressed and slightly cracked big toe.

Korbs Foot

If you look closely at the x-ray, you can see a long foot bone then some small circles and then the toe bones. Notice on Korben's big toe how the circle isn't separate from the bone? That would be the compression. Those bones don't grow together until the teen years, so he jammed it pretty hard. You can't see it in the picture (cell phone camera), but he has a crack in his biggest bone (where that compression is) in the shape of a lightning bolt
.

Prognosis: Completely recovered after 2-3 weeks in a protective shoe.

Korben was such a champ with the doctor and during the x-rays. When he saw the pictures of his foot, he said, "Look Mommy, it's dry bones!" (Mario Party 7) and "I love x-rays!". When he saw his new shoe he said, "Wow! That's a cool shoe" - and even though he doesn't have to sleep in it, it's so "cool" that he wants to. He starts at The Little Gym tomorrow - hopefully the shoe will still be cool after it inhibits him from playing on the beam. :D

Korbs Foot

Logan 2 1/2

At 2 1/2, Logan is turning into quite a character. The time is flying and just when I get used to one of his antics, he comes up with another. He is stubborn and can be a handful, but he has me wrapped right around his little finger regardless.

A few things I want to remember about Logan at this stage:

Cuteness: The boy can be exasperating, but his cuteness seems to keep him alive. :D I think this picture is a complete representation of Logan in his current state - He looks so cute and sweet and yet you can see the mischief in his eyes and smile.

Jan-May 2010

Climbing: Man, this boy can climb! I sometimes want to check that his feet aren't turning into an extra set of hands because this boy is a MONKEY! It would seem that I have raised the most self-assured boy in world. He somehow knows his abilities and doesn't doubt them for a second. As his mother, this trait is terrifying and yet at the same time makes me in awe of him.

Jan-May 2010

Fearlessness: Since Logan is so self-assured, he seems to posses a certain fearlessness that keeps me on my toes. At one time I thought Logan was on the fast track to becoming an escape artist, but he has developed into quite the stunt man - his latest stunt being the climbing pole at discovery park.

This total lack of fear also makes him quite nonchalant about things and has me doing the panicky run across the room in regular intervals. I was able to catch a moment of nonchalance on camera at the petting zoo when he stepped out of one of the windows in the play room without a second thought - almost as if he was bored. It wasn't THAT big of a drop, but the fact that he didn't pay it any attention at all had my heart stopping for a second.

Jan-May 2010

Stern Logan: Logan has developed a stern voice and can be quite the drill sergeant when he wants to be. He is excellent at giving a 1, 2, 3 count-up, pointing his finger (the middle one of course) and telling you to get to time-out. He has also picked up a few phrases from movies that he uses to keep us all in line: "It's not about you!" - Incredibles, and "Is that clear?!" - Little Mermaid. :D

Imagination: Logan has an active imagination and is always babbling to his toys to do one thing or another. My favorite is when I am getting ready in the morning and he will get a deodorant stick (EVA) and a shampoo bottle (WALLE) and pretend that they are flying through the sky. He will say, "EEEEEVVVAAA", followed by, "WAAALLLLEEEE", and then he will gracefully land them and have them kiss with a resounding, "Mwuah". I wish I had it on video.

He also seems to think that he can make himself invisible. I will watch him stand very still and close his eyes and then try to sneak somewhere as if I can't see him. He also thinks that as long as he looks away from me, when heading somewhere he shouldn't, that I won't know he is doing it. Cute little imp.

My baby has grown up and is keeping me on my toes, and while I don't miss the "baby stage", he will always be my baby.

Love you Logan Spencer...

Discovery Park

I have lots of things to blog about...like 6 months of life that is missing from this year. Someday I will get to all those blogs in an attempt to keep up our family journal. There was a time when that journal was so well documented that all the silly little things we did were included. Now I am lucky to even get the big events jotted down.

In the list of things I want to post about, this one is the easiest to get to. :D
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Since moving to Utah, we have found and fallen in love with Discovery (or in Korben's words 'Scovery) Park. It's an ultimate jungle gym, playland, and climbing set in Pleasant Grove, UT. I imagine it will be a favorite for my boys for years to come.

For Logan it is a place to climb and test his limits with dead defying stunts:
Discovery Park
For Korben it is a place to study and explore and hide in nooks and crannies:
Discovery Park
For Mike it is a place to be silly and pretend to be a kid again:

Discovery Park
And for me, it is a place to take all 3 of my rambunctious boys to be entertained for hours on end. Best of all - it's FREE. :D

Happy Mother's Day!

Sorry I hijacked your blog, Kate. Happy Mother's Day! I can't believe how fast time goes by. You've been a mom for over four years! It seems like just yesterday that we started dating.

You are such a good mom to our little boys. I couldn't have picked a better person to spend my life with. You are such a loving mom, and you always put the boys first. I love that about you.

We've done so many things together in such a short time! I can't wait to see what lies ahead. It has been 6 great years. It makes me so happy that I get to come home to you, and wake up next to you.

Thank you for showing the boys and I so much love every day! We miss you like crazy and can't wait for you to get back!

I love you!

Resolutions

I know, I know...it's April and I'm finally getting around to some yearly resolutions. In all fairness, the beginning of this year was CrAzY and much of it is a blur. So since I'm in a new place and starting fresh, why not start with the yearly resolutions?

One of my resolutions this year was to run a half-marathon. I didn't want to be too overly ambitious and go for the full marathon, but I also didn't want to have the token goal of "I'm going to lose weight this year". Instead I wanted a goal that would take work and dedication, that was totally doable, and didn't require me to look at the scale each week & be disappointed when nothing happened. It was a goal that I could set a specific date to accomplish...I just had to pick that date.

Well, the date and location have been picked. Thanks to my big sister Kimber Jo, I have been informed of a half-marathon by my home-town in Idaho. It is the "Running The Gap" - Pocatello Marathon. It isn't until September 4th, so gives me plenty of time to train - and plenty of time for any of you that would like to join me, to train too. :D

Now that I am all settled in our home and with life in general, I have started my training schedule and am looking forward to checking one of my resolutions off the list.
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Resolution #2 this year was to start piano lessons, or just practice the piano in general. I took piano lessons until I was 12 years old, so have a basic knowledge of the keys, but I have not played in years, and am definitely not where I would like to be.

I had the great fortune to marry into a family full of proficient piano players. For the first few years of marriage this was very intimidating to me and I opted to not play the piano at all, rather than embarrass myself in front of great players like my hubby. This silly pride of mine kept me from taking advantage of a great opportunity to take piano lessons from my Mother-in-law before the days of having children and living far away from her.

After doing some growing up and humbling myself, I swore that if we ever moved back to Utah, I would take piano lessons from Mike's mom. I didn't really expect to move back to Utah anytime soon, but miraculously, here we are. So this Wednesday, at the age of 25, I am starting piano lessons again. I'm a little nervous and still a little intimidated, but I am pretty sure Mom will love me even if I stink at the piano, so here goes...

I'll update as things progress in both areas. :D

A Return to Blogging

After many moons of not having internet (or a home for that matter) I have decided to do a quick sum up of our lives since January, and then get back into this whole blogging thing.

First things first - Long ago, before the days of changing jobs and moving, we got a pet fish. He was a Tiger Oscar Fish...nearly 10 inches long, and we named him Wiggles (courtesy of Korben). He was such a delight for the short amount of time that we had him - I think only 4 weeks total.

The story: Our friends wanted to get Piranhas, so needed to get rid of their Oscar fish. And of course the plants and rocks and decorations were all wrong for Piranhas, so they were giving those away too. Woot for us...a "cheap" and " easy" pet. It did end up being pretty cheap, well, to get the 55 gallon tank anyway. Then we had to make a stand (check out Mike's handiwork), purchase hoods, a heater and a backing for the tank...which all added up and taught us the lesson to just buy the sets in the pet store rather than trying to piece your own together. Another lesson - when your friend tells you "everything is free except the tank", take some time to add up costs before you tell her you will take her pet. :D

From January 2010

The Pet: Regardless of the start-up cost, Wiggles was super fun and worth it in the end. If you don't know about Oscar Fish, they aren't very tolerant of others in their tank and will eat anything smaller (and sometimes bigger) than them. They also are very picky about their living quarters and it doesn't matter how many times you bury the plants in their tank, if they don't like where they are, they will pull them up and move them (note the floating plant in the above pic) and I assure you, you will give up much earlier than they will. Wiggles loved to play with Logan - Logan would run to one side of the tank and Wiggles would "attack" the tank where Logan had his face up against the glass. Logan would run to the other side of the tank and Wiggles would in turn attack back and forth until Logan tired of the game. Oscar fish have a tendency to beg for food - and ours was no exception. He would wiggle back and forth (hence the name) and follow you with the cutest look on his face until you caved and gave him some goodness. Wiggles loved to eat goldfish - and we loved to watch. :D

From January 2010

A Sad Farewell: When we found out we were moving, we knew that we would have to part with our new pet. It was amazing how fast Wiggles had become a part of the family and how sad it was to see him go. We found a good family for him to go to on craigslist, but the blow of letting our fun pet go was almost as hard as leaving the house.

From January 2010

We love you Wiggles and hope you like your new home!