Thankful

In the month of November, we made leaf rubbings and wrote on them something we were thankful for that day. Each day we added a new leaf to the wall. Here is a list of things we were thankful for.
*Dad *Mom *Tyler *Andrew *Emma *Laura *Scriptures *Church *Books *Transportation *Holidays *Grandparents *Happiness *Tithing *Mountains *Exercise *Park *America *Learning *Music *TV *Food *Gospel *Monkey Bars *School *Friends *Pets *Teachers *Doctors *Plan of Salvation *Parents

Fay Chadwick Rich (1922-2009)

Fay Chadwick Rich, 87, passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009, at Logan Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Fay was born on Nov. 23, 1922, in North Ogden, Utah. She grew up on a farm, which was not her choice. As a young girl, her primary trip was to Ohio to visit an uncle and his family. One of her delightful summers as a teenager was working in Zion's National Park.
She was a good student and graduated from Weber Junior College and attended USU, earning her way as a secretary where she met Elliot Rich. They were married in Cambridge, Mass., by the mission president, Elder Reeder, on Nov. 6, 1943.
She followed him in his Navy career all over the East coast ending up in Banana River, Fla. Their first child was born in Princeton, N.J. After the war, they lived in Salt Lake City; Spanish Fork, Utah; followed by Ogden, where four more children joined the family while Elliot taught at Weber College. In 1956 the family moved to Logan, Utah, where Elliot taught at USU, and Logan is where their last child was born.
Fay was an amazing wife and mother, but she was also an incredible friend. She worked hard at honing her skills as an artist in painting and writing. She was active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for her entire life, serving in the Relief Society, Primary, MIA and Cub Scouts.
She is survived by her brother, Keith Chadwick; her husband and all her children, Jacque (Duane) Evans, Pat (Kent) Crookston, Alison (Dennie) Christensen, Scott, Dave (Heather) and Curtis; along with 16 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009, in the Lundstrom Park Ward Chapel. A viewing will be held on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lundstrom Park Church and prior to services at the church on Saturday from 9 to 9:45 a.m.

This was about the farthest away Emma was from Grandma Crookston all day long. Well, I guess when Grandma was speaking at the funeral, Emma was sitting on the front row on Grandpa's lap. Emma sat by Grandma at the luncheon and rode in her car to the cemetery. She wanted nothing to do with mom and dad.
Tyler and Andrew both sang I Lived in Heaven, I Am a Child of God, and Families Can Be Together Forever with some of the other great-grandkids at the funeral. It was a beautiful day.

I want to be her nurse...

So, a while ago, in the birthday post, I mentioned that Laura needed to have her hearing tested. Here is the update. She can hear better than Emma. Laura has some pressure behind her ear drums, has a slight disruption in one of the frequencies, and she can get a peak on the hearing test (it is in the wrong place on the chart, but a peak is still good). Not too much to worry about at this point. We will work on some early speech interventions with her at home, and will follow up at 18 months.

Emma is a different story. She had surgery today for the third time. She has chronic fluid behind her eardrums. Her first set of tubes, when she was 18 months old, lasted less than five months (should of lasted about six). After the tubes came out of her ear drum, she had to have the tubes and lots of wax removed from her ear canal by the doctor, because they were so plugged up. She was on antibiotics for ear infections for five months and then had her second set of tubes put in, and adenoids taken out, hoping to give the fluid from her ears more room to drain.
She had a follow up with the ENT a couple weeks ago because of a small lump she has in front of her ear (that turns out to be a slightly swollen lymph node and nothing to worry about). I noticed the lump in April. The doctor checked it then and wanted to follow up six months later. As they were doing a follow up on the little lump, the doctor wanted to clean out her ear canal again. It was full of wax and he wanted another doctor to be able to see her ear drum if needed (it is cold and flu season). She remembered the first time, and was a little scared. Along with too much wax he also found that the second tube in her left ear had come out, and her ear was again infected. He sent her across the hall to the audiologist (that Laura and just seen) to do another hearing test. Once again she flat lined the test, which means there was so much fluid behind her eardrum that the vibrations and sound could not get through, and she could not hear with her left ear. (The timing was just as she switched school programs, so it was hard to know that the increased signing and less vocalizing was because she couldn't hear, not just because she didn't like her new teacher.) With a ten day dose of amoxicillin and surgery scheduled again we came home. The second set of tubes should have lasted about a year, but the left one lasted for about six months.
Today Dr. Scheuller put in her third set of tubes. He replaced both left and right. Emma checked in at the front desk by telling them her name, and then knew she got to pick a little stuffed animal. She knows the drill. She has never lasted in the little wagon to go to the surgery room, she can tell the doctor is walking away from mom and dad and has bailed and jumped out. Today I told her I would take her picture in the wagon. She liked the camera attention and by the time I was done taking pictures, she was at the end of the hallway and gone.
After the surgery she has to stay in recovery until the nurses think it is okay for her to go, between 30-60 minutes. Her recovery room time went really fast this time. Last time I noticed the books in the recovery room were a bit dumb (what little kid wants to know about the shape of hair follicles?), so I packed an activity bag with her doll, some books, colored pencils, a notebook, some stickers, etc. Lee overheard some of the nurses talking and one of them said "I want to be her nurse, she is in there talking to her mom and dad and coloring..." Emma said she had to go to the bathroom and so we went to go find it. Our nurse saw us and showed us where it was, then she said, "I guess when you get back we can discharge you." On the way back to her room (well more like her area), Emma kept pointing to all the other patients that we passed. She was signing hurt, and sleep, and quiet. She really was doing lots better than they were. I am so glad that she has a little-no-problem-but-let's-check-it-in-six-months-lump and we got her back in the land of the hearing. The tubes they used this time should last between 18-24 months.
For the rest of the day today, Emma has been singing, I know that looks like signing, but it says singing. Tyler and Andrew have been telling her to be quiet. I told them it is exciting that Emma can hear again and they should sing with her. About five minutes later we repeat the process. Sing, Quiet, Sing too. Repeat.

What's the deal with Fabio?

A few years ago, I think it was in 2006, I was on the phone with Jess when she was looking through her mail. She laughed and said she just got a poster letting her know the Work and the Glory III was coming to a theater near her the next month. We both found it funny that she now had a poster size advertisement for the movie. I told her she should hang it up and see how long it would take Clay to notice. She did and, of course, he noticed not long after he got home from work. As far as my memory can recall, he asked her why they had a new poster decorating their apartment, and she explained that I told her to put it there. So, game on.
Clay came over and hung the poster on my front door. I was in the middle of a Stake Primary presidency meeting with my councilors and secretary all at my house. When I walked them to the front door to let them out I was shocked to find the poster. I know they gave it kind of a strange look, but I was laughing so hard that I didn't have a chance to explain.
From then on this poster (or parts of it) have been passed back and forth between our two households...With a short lived trip to my mom and dad's house. My mom had heard about the poster passing and so we decided to end it by taking it to her house. I hung it on her bathroom mirror, but found it back in our van when we left.
Neither of us have seen the movie, so we don't really know the correct names. But because the guy in the posters has long hair we refer to him as Fabio.
The game quickly changed from taping it somewhere it will get found, to hiding it to be a surprise later. One of the times, I got my scriptures out at church to find a piece of the poster. The back had three mini posters and there was a poster of Joseph Smith in my scriptures. So the hiding went from one to three. All the more to find...
When the movie came out on DVD I got a mailing about it. Using it and all the cut apart pieces, I framed it for Jessica for Christmas. It has been placed in moving boxes and crossed state lines many times. Mostly it has remained hidden for months at a time, and then one day when you don't expect to, you find it and just have to smile (and plan a trip across the border). So after I find it, and haven't had a chance to give it back, it sits prominently in my living room or bedroom with no explanation (because nobody dares ask about it).
So, the real question is...Which house is it at? Did my kids succeed at hiding it to outlast their stay? Or when the Brown's brought my kids back did they bring Fabio with them? Is it hiding under my bathroom sink? (No, I looked.) Tyler is pretty sure it is still in Idaho, he said nobody was looking, but only time will tell.

Reflections: Beauty is...

Tyler entered the PTA Reflections contest this past week. He took a lot of pictures (he took 74) and only could enter one. The PTA rules are so strict that he do all the work that he even had to decide what picture to use. I like how his pictures turned out, but it was not the picture I would have chosen. He had so many good ones it was hard to pick just one. He also picked the mats and titles.

His first entry was this picture he took on the Logan River trail at Second Dam. He chose a shimmery gold mat. Title: Magical Forest

His second entry was in the visual arts category. He took this picture of the sunset over Logan from Green Canyon. Because he could only enter one photo he made a paper collage of this image with torn and cut construction and tissue paper. We were in such a rush to get in mounted and him in bed the night before the deadline, that I forgot to take a picture of him with his artwork. But here is the photograph from the canyon. He chose a deep plum colored mat. Title: Night Canyon

Will Walk For Candy

For Halloween this year we...
*went to the kids hay bale maze in Perry
*picked out pumpkins (my rule was the kids had to be able to pick it up, Lee ended up carrying them)
*painted pumpkins
*went to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk
*went to Halloween story time at the library
*helped with the second grade party (90 students+70 minutes+9 stations+no rotation system...the kids could just wander=chaos)
*did free Halloween crafts at Michael's
*trick-or-treated at the mall
*entered the King's photo contest
*trick-or-treated at Papa Murphy's (got mini pizzas)
*went to the three ward combine trunk-or-treat
*trick-or-treated up and down our street
*went in our neighbor's spooky garage
*watched It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
*answered the door for lots of trick-or-treaters

What goes up and doesn't come down?

The ages of my family members keeps going up. Here are the cliff notes from the recent birthday activities.

Tyler turned eight. His birthday was on a Friday so he got to stay up a little bit longer and play Star Wars on the XBox. He had an M&M party; they pinned the 'm' on Red, and did a Trivia Treasure Hunt. He also started cub scouts, and got baptized. (Check out the quote in the side bar.)

Lee went to Snowbasin with Arik (a birthday tradition). We also met him at work and had lunch at the picnic table. He got a couple new games. (You should come over and play them with us.) He had an Oreo ice cream cake.


Emma turned three. She got her first haircut, and she "graduated" from her speech and sign language classes. Now she attends a 20 minute class at the elementary twice a week. (She scored in the 3rd percentile for speech, but doesn't qualify for the language preschool because her sign language counts as language...she uses over 200 signs!) We went from classes ten hours a week to forty minutes a week. She is also old enough to go to the storytime class at the library with Andrew now.



Laura mastered walking about a week before she turned one. She got her own doll, so Emma can't take it away from her. She is 16.8 pounds (2%) and 28.5 inchs long (31%). She also gets to do the hearing tests with the ear doctor because she doesn't talk, not even mama and dada and some of the other first sounds. She is still really happy most of the time.

A day in the life of Laura

A day in the life of Andrew

A day in the life of Tyler

A day in the life of Emma

Little Aggie

Emma's first day of preschool was July 6th. It is a class on campus called Lil' Aggies. It is part of the Up to 3 program. She still attends eight other classes a week with mom, but this is one she stays at by herself.She was excited to get a new backpack. The teachers wanted me to reassure her that I would be back after snack. She didn't seem to care that I was leaving, she was however very glad to see me when I came to pick her up...but that was because I told her I would bring the camera and take her picture with her backpack. After we left Andrew said he doesn't remember going there before. I need to get him into a preschool next fall!! He was disapointed that Emma's backpack was empty, (she is holding her art project because it wasn't dry yet) he wanted to help her with her homework.

Here She Comes

Laura has been crawling for a week and is cutting her second tooth.

When it Rains...

Jump in puddles!! Emma threw a little pebble to the water in the gutter after a rain storm. It didn't quite make it so she threw it again, and got a little closer, and a little closer...



It was lots cuter the first time when we got home from the store. Not quite as cute the second time when we were trying to leave.

Father's Day

For Father's Day the kids got dad a new movie player for the van. Tyler was concerned that it wouldn't be a very good gift because dad drives and doesn't get to watch the movies. Believe me having kids quiet while driving is a great gift. Actually it was a two screen player and the second screen on our old one still works (it was the main screen that broke), so Lee has hooked up three screens. Most of the wires are under the floor mats so they don't get in the way. The kids have headphones too, so weekly drives to Layton with the kids watching a movie that we can't hear, makes great talk time for us. On Father's Day I was going to drive so Lee could watch a movie with the kids. But in Brigham, Lee decided he was getting car sick, and I can't drive that far, so he took over.