We've witnessed a miracle!

On Monday morning, October 19th, I received a text message from Dan. It read: "Dad just had an accident on his bike. He ended up going over the handle bars. They found fractures in his neck, but he can still move his toes." WHAT???? I called Dan to see if he had more information about his Dad. He was pretty shooken up about the phone call he had just received from his mom that he forgot to even ask her which hospital they were taking him to. Well, I immediately posted it on Facebook so we could get as many prayers as we could. Man, that Facebook is awesome! It spread like wildfire. I couldn't do anything but wait and hear for updates since I was here home with the kids. Travis and Cassie went straight the hospital and stayed with Ma the rest of the day. So here's what happened:

Pa was riding his bicycle (NOT motorcycle) to work early in the morning (about 6:30 am) so it was still dark. He was heading North along 2700 West and had just passed 9000th South. He says he thinks he was going about 23 mph when suddenly his bike smacked right into a blue recycle garbage can that had blown over from some wind. It was too dark that he didn't see it. He flew over the top of the handle bars and landed on his head. He said he blacked out for a minute and then realized what had happened but didn't dare move because he could tell he did something to his neck. But then he didn't know if he was in the middle of the road or the side. Then he heard a truck coming and was hoping he wasn't about to get run over. The truck passed him, then turned around because they could see him laying there on the side of the road. He asked Pa if he was ok. Pa told him he was going to need an ambulance and asked the man to please call his wife. So they put him on a backboard and headed to Jordan Valley Hospital where they did tests and scans. There they found he had fractured 4 vertebrae in his neck. They told him he would probably be in the hospital for 2 months!!! Pa is in the Stake Presidency, so not long after they had arrived at the hospital, did the Stake President, President Barton, arrive there to give him a blessing. Then they sent Pa by helicopter to the U of U Hospital to see a specialist. After more tests and scans, they could see that things were better than they thought and that he would only have to be in the hospital 7-10 days. Well, by 9:00 pm that night they had a neck brace on him and he was on his way home! He didn't even have to stay 1 night! What a miracle! He has to where the brace for 6 weeks and do some therapy but that's pretty much it! We're so grateful for every one's prayers and concern! We know the Lord was listening that day! We love you Pa!

The forks on the front of the bike snapped in half from the force of hitting the garbage can!

The bike was in 2 pieces!

The Witches 2009

As a tradition, we like to take the kids to see the Witches at Gardner Village in October. This year we decided to go with most of my sisters and their kids during the day. Well, that was a mistake. We went on a day that all of Alpine School Distict was out of school and it was a gorgeous day (70 degrees) so everybody and their dog was there too. But we still had fun and enjoyed a yummy cookie at the end.

Here's all the grandkids (minus 4 of them that live out of state). As you can see on the far right, Zane is crying. He and Marcus were playing around and Marcus pushed Zane off the bale of hay. So Zane was upset. He then cried for 10 minutes about it.

So in this picture he was still crying...

Finally I made him laugh by saying, "Zane, don't smile. Whatever you do, don't smile!" Well then he smiled and laughed and all was well. Geez, children!

Grandparents Day

The whole First Grade at Lindsay's school had Grandparent's Day on October 14th. She got to invite Grandma Tracey, Grandpa Kevin, Granny Annie and Grandpa Harry to come and see her sing some songs and recite poems for them. The parents got to go in the day before and watch the Dress Rehersal. It was so cute. Lindsay was very lucky to get to have all 4 of her Grandparent's come and see her. They also had refreshments and they got to go visit Lindsay's classroom!

Granny Annie and Grandpa Harry

Grandma Tracey and Grandpa Kevin

Brooklyn 4 months

Brooklyn had her 4 month checkup on October 8th. She was 13 lbs 8 oz and 24 1/2 inches long. I was looking at the other kids' weights at 4 months old and this is what they were:

Lindsay: 16 lbs 8 oz and 26.5 in. long

Zane: 17 lbs 1 oz and 25.3 in. long

Gavin: 18 lbs 11 oz and 25 3/4 in. long

So as you can see, our little Brooklyn is just that.....little. I can't believe Gavin was 5 more pounds than Brooklyn is right now! She was our biggest baby at birth but is growing a lot slower than the other kids which I am just fine with! She's smiling so much now and the kids love interacting with her. She still does the silent giggle which is cute but every now and then we hear her giggle out loud! She's getting her 4th cold since she was born (poor thing) and while at her checkup we discovered that both her ears were infected which would make this her second double ear infection. Dr. Edwards said to just plan on getting tubes in her ears (Zane and Gavin both had them). So that will probably be happening sooner than later. Here's a little video of her giggling just a little bit.

Scrapbooking/Hanging out at the Family Cabin

On Conference weekend, mom, Laurel, Karen, Heidi, Amy and I went up to the cabin to scrapbook for 2 1/2 days!!! It was so much fun! Dad came up too the protect us from evil stalkers (there's not any, but we're dramatic girls). On Thursday night, just Laurel and I went up to get a head start on our scrapbook pages (Laurel brought baby Mary too). It was actually pretty freaky being up there with just us 2 and not to mention we kept hearing some creature runnin through the walls and ceiling! Dan made me take his shotgun and a stabbing knife to protect ourselves! Good thing I never had to use it but I did threaten the creature in the wall that I would shoot him! On Friday everyone else came up. We chatted, ate and watched movies while we scrapbooked (mom actually sewed some unfinished projects instead and Amy did homework). On Saturday we listened to Conference then headed home so our hubbies could attend the Priesthood session. I think this might become a tradtion......what do you think Dan? Hahahaha!

Mom and Heidi

Me, Karen and Laurel


Dad working on editing some audio stuff for some of Grandpa Skousen's work

Cute Mary

"Don't anyone come near me! I gotta gun and I know how to use it now!"

Amy being studious

The fall leaves were gorgeous up there!

My cousin Clifton just recently built the railing on the stairs. It looks awesome!



On Conference Sunday, we decided to head back up to the cabin with Laurel, Sam and their kids since our kids didn't have school Monday and spend the night (good thing the cabin uis only 40 minutes away!). We played games and ate of course. None of us got a very good night sleep that night because whatever little creature was living in the walls was awake all night running around! It was so icky hearing it run over our heads in the ceiling while laying in bed. Dan and I decided to each put one of my ear phones in one of ours ears and listen to my IPod to drown out the noise, but it didn't help much! Dan and Sam got up early to drive back down to go to work. We woke up with a little snow on our cars! Besides the little sleep on Sunday night, it was a really fun weekend!

Bentley (he was not feeling good), Jarom, Lindsay and Kelly

Teron, Jarom, Gavin and Zane

Sam and Laurel

Congrats Emily and Randy

My cute Cousin, Emily, married Randy Roundy, on September 19th, 2009. They had their ceremony and reception in my parent's backyard. It was pouring rain right before the ceremony so we started a little late, but then it was a gorgeous evening. I can't believe my little Emmy is married! We are so happy for them! We love you two! Congratulations!

Arizona!!!!

On September 14th, Dan flew out to Arizona to teach a training for work. I had told Dan about a year ago that if he ever had another training in Phoenix I wanted to come with him for some of the time so I could see my sister Jenny and some friends that have moved there. I swear, Arizona is just an extention of Utah. We have many friends and family that have moved there in the past few years. So once we found out about his training there, I booked a flight for me and Brooklyn to go two days after Dan went. Brooklyn and I flew out on the morning of September 16th. Heidi had Lindsay come and stay with her and the boys went to Granny Annie's where Karen and Christian are living and they helped watch Zane and Gavin. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP EVERYONE!

Brooklyn was as good as gold on the airplane. She slept the whole time.

The Hotel where Dan's work paid for him to stay (and me and Brooklyn for one night).

Carter was like a whirlwind when him and Jenny stopped by the hotel.

Me and Jenny went to dinner with one of my long-time friends, Allison (Averett) Westenskow. She's lived in Mesa for about 3 years now. (Operation Q5~inside joke!)

I also went and visited a good friend who used to be in our old ward in West Valley, Janet Grimsley, who also had a baby a couple weeks before I had Brooklyn. It had been about 4-5 years since we had seen each other.

The Mesa Temple

I hung out with Jenny most of the time, which was so much fun! That Carter is a handful, but cracks me up! We went to dinner at a yummy BBQ place in Gilbert with Jenny, Ben and Carter.
He's such a cute kid!

The second night, Dan and I and Brooklyn all slept at Jenny's because Dan was done training and his work was done paying for the Hotel. But it ended up being great because Jenny and I made a trip to Walmart late that night and bought a few "As Seen on TV" products and ended up laughing so hard we peed our pants! Good times!

We had some time on Friday before for our flights, so we went to see the new Harry Potter movie that came out this past summer. We had tried several times to see it before, but things kept coming up or we couldn't get a babysitter. It was really good! I love all the Harry Potter movies.

On our way to the airport we stopped in downtown Phoenix and picked up my friend, Rachel Shea and ran to Wendy's to get something to eat. The last time I saw Rachel was when Lindsay was a few months old. It was fun to catch up with her.

It was a short trip but so much fun! They were having a "cool down" that week so it was only around 100 degrees! But it didn't seem that hot to me. Thanks Jenny and Ben for letting us stay for a night and hang out with you!