Quote of the day

Me: This is the second time I've found an empty fruit snack wrapper lying around on the floor. Did you do that Oliver? (knowing full well that he did)

Oliver: Nope.

Me: Good, because I don't want any "bugs" in our family. (We've joked about this since this incident.)

Oliver (with a very serious look on his face): Yeah, I sure hope it's not Tucker.

Fairmont Aquatic

One of the teams Emmaline plays on had a party on Saturday. We decided to all join her. I think this was the first time Tucker thought swimming was really great.

The "boy team."

Can you believe those eyes?

Emmaline is always such a great playmate.

Don't tell Emmaline...

I thought since I'd talked a bit about Savannah and soccer, I should let you know what is going on with Emmaline. You might remember that Emmaline spent a year playing competition soccer last year. It was pretty much a nightmare for us all. I wanted her to play with the same club as Savannah to make it easier for me to get them both to practice. Plus, I really liked the trainer, but this required her to play "up" a year. I didn't really think it would be a problem because she is a really amazing player. It probably wouldn't have been a problem had she not gotten on a team with the nastiest group of girls, and parents- I must add, that I have yet to encounter. Why is it that some kids seem to have rotten luck? Anyway, the nature of the team, added to all of the time we spent getting her diagnosis, going to group therapy, math tutoring... it just turned out to be too much! She pretty much gets a bad taste in her mouth when we mention the word competition soccer.

So, we went back to recreation this year. Of course, that hasn't been what we had hoped- I mentioned the bad luck part, right? There was a really great coach that begged us to come back and play with his rec team. That would have worked out great, except 2 weeks after the season started, his father passed away and he had to return to Mexico to help his mother. The mom who took over is a great soccer player- but not a great coach. That added to the fact that it was rec and only a few players had ANY skills made for a hard year. They only won 2 games the whole year and most were a CRUSHING loss.

I found out, about mid season, that there was a really great rec team that had a coach that I had seen at church- not in my ward, but in the Spanish speaking branch. I asked him if he would be willing to let Emmaline come to his practices. He said he would, but I just never could seem to get her there. Finally, about a month ago, I felt like I HAD to get her there, no matter how hard. After the first practice, he ran up to me and said, "Emmaline has amazing talent. I love to have her at practice, but I am wondering if you will let her play games with us on Saturdays." Would I? Better than I could have hoped for! After a couple of weeks, Emmaline came home from practice and said, "Oscar (the coach), is changing to a club team. He says we can all try out, but he can only take 7 girls. I don't know if I can try out because I'm not really on the team." I quickly emailed him to ask if we would be eligible for a tryout, but he didn't answer. It also happened over a holiday, so I didn't hear anything for 2 weeks. We were so worried! We finally got her on a good team and it seemed that it was all going to end.

Finally, he called me and said he wanted to let me know when the tryout was, but he also wanted to let me know that he had already chosen Emmaline as one of the 7 he wanted to take with him. Would Emmaline be willing to come? After assuring her that it wasn't competition, just "club" (kind of in between rec and comp) she agreed. So I show up for the parent meeting... about 10 minutes late. They are discussing uniforms and I walk in just in time to hear "... and the Blast logo will be right here." Hmmmm.... Blast is a competition team. Oscar speaks English as a second language and between that and the fact that he always calls me on a cell phone that is hard to hear, I missed that this was a comp team. I look over at Emmaline who is sitting with the girls, smiling and giggling (Did I mention that these girls are nice to her? They actually seem to go out of their way to welcome her and befriend her!). I quickly write my check and decide not to tell her.

Since then, I've talked with the coaches and they are willing to take this a step at a time. If it's too much, we can miss a practice or a game. They are just so excited to have her on the team, they'll work with us. (Am I dreaming here? This is almost too good to be true!) And I've 'fessed up to Emmaline. If she thought I'd lied to her, she'd quit playing forever- just to spite me!

I know this has been long and uninteresting to everyone except me and maybe grandparents... but I just wanted to end with two of my favorite quotes from the season on Emmaline. First, from her "real" team:
"I love how Emmaline weighs all of about 40 pounds, but she is scrappier than all of the kids on both teams put together."
And from Oscar:
"Emma has a smell for the ball."
(LOVE that... pretty sure it is some kind of idiom in Spanish =)

"Look Mama...

... these are all the awards my Army Guy Boss gave me."

He celebrated his "Un-birthday" in preschool by bringing doughnuts and "army guy" gift bags with stickers, pencils, and a notebook inside.

Memorial Day Weekend

We kept Katy and Emily for 5 days while Alyssa and Steve visited Texas. Here are a few pics of our time together.

(not good of Emmaline- she keeps trying to let her bangs grow out, but cute of Emily!)
Between soccer games we went to the Primary activity.

Emmaline always wanted a younger sister! She had fun pretending =)

Why nap in the crib when you can use the dog?!

We also spent a LOT of time at the playground while Savannah played in the Wasatch Soccer Tournament. The first two games were amazing for Savannah. She has been working with a personal trainer for the past few months. We've seen some progress in recent games- more confidence with the ball and a LOT more speed- but no real breakthrough. During those games, she was a different player. I guess, as a parent, you kind of get an idea in your mind of the type of player you think your child will be based on their personality type, past experiences, etc.

During the first game, she played the way I envisioned- not by making goals, but by being tough and strong and getting the ball to the front and center for someone else to score. During the second game she was the star! She made an amazing hook shot that I didn't even know she was capable of performing. Her other goal was in the same vein- I didn't know her kicks were strong enough to make it from that far down the field!

Unfortunately, this was the same team they played in the finals and I think they targeted Savannah and doubled up on her to make sure she couldn't get a shot. She still played well, but wasn't able to get a goal. The game ended up in double overtime with no score and finally moved into a shoot out. Savannah's team lost by one in the shoot out (and she was one of the girls who missed a shot). She cried so hard! It was crazy, because she even broke a tooth in that game and hardly winced, but cried all the way home over that missed shot. I tried to console her since I don't feel like that was a "loss." The teams were evenly matched and that was just a contest to see who to give the first place medals to. It didn't work, though. This was the same team they lost to last year. Anyway, she's on a great team and loves it and we love watching her shine!

Mr. T doing laundry

Tucker loves to do laundry. When he sees the full basket, he goes over as fast as his little crab crawl can take him and throws out as many clothes as he can before I grab him. I don't know if he really thinks he is helping or is just trying to be funny. Since he laughs the whole time, I guess it is a pretty fair guess that he is just being a clown!

I know this is blurry, but it really captures the action. =)

Quote of the day

I almost forgot. Before we went on the fieldtrip, Oliver told me, "I think they call it a field trip because all of the parents stand in the field while the kids take a wagon ride around the farm." I think he was pleasantly surprised.

Bathing Beauty

Oliver's doing great... it's getting warm here and we're lovin' it.

Wheeler Farm

I went on a fieldtrip with Oliver's preschool class to Wheeler Farm. He really enjoyed it, since he couldn't remember being there 2 years ago. Always fun to compare.

Then...


And now...

(thanks for the picture, Laurel)

And now for more of this year's pictures. Tyler bought me a great camera for Mother's Day. Unfortunately I didn't notice until I got home that Tucker had touched the lens at some point and left a big, fat fingerprint in the middle. Oh well, just adds to the memory, right?

These guys are quite a pair. Don't you love how Rachel is leaning on Oliver?

Oliver's best friends: Albert, Justin & Cooper (the little guy is Justin's brother)

Can you say "Henoch-Schonlein Purpura"?

It all started Sunday morning. As we were getting Oliver ready for church, we noticed a raised, red spot on his forehead. We asked him if he had hit his head, but he couldn't remember and we couldn't recall any incident that would have caused it. So.... we ignored it and rushed to church because we can't ever seem to get to that place on time! By the time he went to class, we noticed a rash around his neck. It didn't look too serious, but an hour later his teacher came to get me because it had gotten worse. Tyler went home and gave him Benadryl. We assumed that it must be an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he had been taking for his earache. It got much better by that night.

During the night he throws up, everywhere! And in true, clean freak mode, I wash everything in his room... all his comforters, pillows, "guys"... you get the idea. We continue with the Benadryl for the rash, but by the next afternoon he is MUCH worse. Suddenly it dawns on me that I have changed laundry detergents. Activate clean freak mode again... and I wash EVERYTHING again. Plus, I worry that he must be super allergic to this particular detergent (since he threw up) and proceed to rewash anything I might have washed with this detergent. Since I can't really remember what I washed, I just go ahead and wash almost everything in the house. He seems better by that night.

When he wakes up Tuesday morning, it looks bad again. I call the pediatrician's nurse who tells me to keep giving the Benadryl and watch for difficulty breathing- otherwise it may just take a few days to get rid of the rash. But by Tuesday night, he has swelling on one foot and in one unmentionable place. He can't/won't walk because it hurts to bend the foot.

I decide to take him in to the doctor "first thing." The first appointment isn't until noon, which is good because it gives me time to work on my washing machine which has decided to become clogged (maybe because it wasn't designed to do 20 loads a day?). With an unexpectedly clean laundry room behind us (because if you have to pull out the washer and dryer, you might as well scrub in those places you can't see and never clean) we head to the pediatrician.

After speaking to the pediatrician for just a few minutes, she (our regular doc was not in)knows exactly what it is- Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. I don't fully understand it, maybe because no one really does, but sometimes when your body is attempting to fight off an infection something goes awry and you produce this awful rash. This is accompanied by swelling of the joints, nausea... all the symptoms Oliver is experiencing. It can sometimes cause problems if the kidneys become enflammed, so she did some blood work and a urine sample. She wanted us to wait for the 45 minutes it would take to get back the results and told us to just wait in the waiting room since he wasn't contagious. It was hilarious to watch everyone quickly scoot their children away from us after one look at Oliver's face (the spots there were, of course, most prominent). We spent the next little while in relative solitude as I read to Oliver on my lap and Tucker pulled every book off of the four shelf bookcase off- one book at a time.

Everything came back normal and with a cortizone treatment, Oliver should be back to normal in no time... or a month. We can't be sure yet. If I didn't know better, I would swear I was making this stuff up.

Rallying the troops

Oliver told me he needed to go outside because his "war" was starting. When I looked outside, this is what I saw.


At first I thought he had let out our little ladies and they had unwittingly become part of his army, but when I came outside, he told me, "See those roosters? (Even though our chicks were "sexed," we ended up with two roosters.) I've decided they're big enough and I'm gone shoot 'em so we can eat 'em for dinner."
Don't worry, Daddy Jeff. Even though we live in the city, his "Horn" roots can't be buried.

New Profession

While we were out of work, Tyler and I were discussing some of our future options. He told he me he had always wanted to cut hair and thought he would be good at it. Although I think that might be true, I discouraged such a drastic change in profession at this stage in life.

We decided he can just practice on Oliver and Jon instead.

The Little Red Hen

Here is some of Oliver's latest artwork. They are little stick puppets to go along with the "Little Red Hen" story. His teacher does so few developmentally appropriate art projects, I have to post all the good ones! I think they're adorable, but of course a mother's love is blind.

The dog

The goose

The cat


and of course... the Little Red Hen