Best Friends...

If by chance you are wondering if we are still alive we are, I stumbled across this picture and had to share it. This summer we spent hours and hours riding bikes out side and these two boys had a ball. (Macie wore a hole in her tires) Thomas and Alex have so much fun together and it is fun to watch them develop such a friendship! Notice the slurpy in their laps they had their dads wrapped around their fingers and I am sad to say probably had a slurpy every other day if not more for sure.

I love these boys and I am so grateful for the many friendships my family and I have gained here in Wisconsin!!!

Hello Fall, and WELCOME!

It's hard to believe that it is here, but at the same time we realize just how much we missed it!  The weather has become very nice.  It is nice to have the windows open at night and to see the kids running around without sweating to the oldies!  Macie said the other day, "When do the leaves fall, I can't wait to play in them!"  Macie has started K4 and is gone in the mornings at school!  She loves going to school and seems to be learning a few things.  When did these kids grow up.

Another fun thing about Fall is going to the apple orchard.  We picked apples and pears today and the kids had so much fun running around.  The place we go has a few farm animals and its always fun to watch the kids interact with them and try to mimic their sounds.  MOOOO!!!!

Lastly, Sky has been trying to learn how to fly helicopters, which is apparently quite a difficult thing compared to airplanes.  He got a free helicopter from a raffle last year and has been itching to get it going. We were up at Costco, which is only a mile or two way from Sky's flying field, so he took advantage of the trip and brought his latest project.  I think you might enjoy the video I took of him.  Tom has always liked helicopters more than airplanes, and we are liking them too because they take up less space!  Here is a video of his flight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CokH77b_lkQ

Samuel James Sessions

 Big guy was born on 8/17/11 at 2:24pm, 9lbs 7oz and 22in long.

He and Marianne are doing very well!  There has been some concern about his heart because they noticed irregular heartbeats, which is typical of newborns, but these irregularities were not the typical ones they expected.  Apparently newborns commonly have pre-mature atrial contractions that cause these irregularities, but big chief Sam was having premature ventricular contractions.  So we were a little delayed in bringing him home as they ran a few tests on him.  He was finally released, but he has to wear a heart monitor that is basically a mini ECG.  That will be analyzed and then hopefully we can just have some fun with the big guy!

What we have been up to....

I know I know it has been awhile since I have blogged so here is what we have been up to this summer;

Lots of water time!!

spending a lot of time with friends

going to a ball game, the Brewers won, our first time being at a game where they won.

Local Glendale days, for the fourth of July

Spending a lot of time with Dad! Everyone loves this!!

Crafting

And mainly going to bed exhausted every night!!

Summer Fun!

Sky practicing some hovering with his favorite
plane!

Milwaukee Kite Festival - can you tell that
Tom was a little distracted?

kid pictures

One morning my Friend Lynn and I got together and she took some pictures of the kids. Thanks lynn. Macie 4 1/2 and Thomas 2 1/2

Last chance for fun!

Well we made it home and this is how far we went!  I'm tired!

Before we left for home we stopped at Rexburg to say bye,
Thomas & Macie took advantage to beg for another ride!

The kids loved to "Bounce!"

Thomas bouncing his heart out!

Tom loved the swing and wore a hole in the grass.

Macie was always cooking us something to eat!

No, she didn't fall...

Fun at Grandma & Grandpa's!

More fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Tom has been itching for a ride on grandpa's tractor!!! 

Macie of course wanted a ride too!

Macie loved playing with her cousins, after they left she asked,
"Mom can I call my cousins and talk to them?"

Tom thought he was a pirate!

Grandma's Upper Valley Women's Choir concert.

Tom fell in love with the Ipad

BYU-Idaho Center

My mom and dad are missionaries in Rexburg serving at the new BYU-I center, so they gave us the grand tour of the center.  Man was it amazing!  People had told me that it was large, and had even compared it to the conference center in SLC, and I will be honest I didn't really believe them until now!  It seats 15,000 people and has 10 full sized basketball courts in it!  There are 3 levels of seating, you really can't see it because we only turned the main lights on.  Sorry the camera pictures aren't great, we don't really carry a camera with us so we just take pictures from the old cell phone.

Welcome Back to Idaho

A week of from school means a road trip to Idaho!  This time we took a different route because Marianne's nephew Cameron had open heart surgery.  I canceled all my patients and we left for Colorado a little early.  Poor little guy is only 9 years old and spent 17 hours in surgery.  He had several problems and it wasn't an easy fix for the doctors, but he is doing better and showing improvement everyday.  Basically his coronary artery was as small as a needle when it should be more the size of a pencil, his aortic valve was not functioning properly so they cut out his pulmonary valve and used that for his aortic valve, and then they placed a cows valve in place of his pulmonary valve.  After such a long procedure his heart had to be placed on a pacemaker because it wasn't working normal.  Before we left Colorado the heart had began beating on its own.  There was still a block to the ventricles, so the pacemaker was only being used to coordinate the ventricles into rhythm with the atrium.  Doctors are hopeful that he will be out of ICU within the week and he will be able to go home soon.

We left Colorado and came home to Rexburg and the drive was really nice!  We had a lot of fun taking in the sights and loving the mountains!  The pictures above are along the Hoback river in Idaho.  The kids did really well in the car and we were grateful for that because we almost had 30 hours in the car after going through Colorado, a total of 1830 miles to get home!  Eck!  It was a lot of fun to make it home in time to say happy Mother's Day to my mom and Marianne's Mom, and especially fun to have a good Sunday dinner with all my brother's that are in Rexburg.  We look forward to spending more time with family and catching up!

Fun wall art

Macie needed some wall art on a bare wall in her room. It was a rainy day so this is what we came up with. I had saved this frame from the fate of the dumpster a while back not knowing what I would do with it. So I found some fabric in the closet, liquid starch under the sink, and this frame and got to work. I put the fabric on the wall with the liquid starch and then I painted the frame white and here is what it came out looking like a wall hanging for under $8. Macie loves it, more because it has butterflies in it than anything else.

Just a Side note...

I am so excited to announce that we are diaper less at our house and have been for some time now, (boys are way more easy to potty train at this house than our girl was) well that is until number three shows up!!!

He has Risen!!

I have been thinking about this post for over a week now and trying to put into words how I feel about easter and the Resurrection of our Savior.

I love this holiday, yes it is filled with candy and at some homes presents, and of course the easter meal where family and friends gather together to enjoy each others company. However what I love most is pondering on the life, death and resurrection of MY/OUR Savior Jesus Christ. I know That Jesus Christ came to this earth and that he is the Son of God. He taught us about so many things and made it possible through the Atonement and resurrection for us to over come spiritual, and physical death. I know he lived and he died on the cross and was resurrected. I know this through the Holy Ghost who has testified to me in my mind and heart. I look forward to the time when he comes again. I Love my Savior and I love celebrating his life and resurrection each year.!!