Lance's Bike Repair

Like Father, Like Son. Lance is becoming quite the mechanic ....and bike repairman. In fact, on this particular day, we had FOUR bikes in our garage....three extra. He seems to be always working on his friends' bikes. Maybe instead of a Mow Power, he'll have a Pedal Power someday:).

Like Big Brother, Like Little Brother.

After watching Lance, Weston makes sure his bike is up to specs now.

Woe Is Me

So, Todd takes a picture of Sierra and I at Wes' bday celebration. He hands me back the camera. I go to check how the picture turned out. Immediately, I think "Boy, do I look ol....". But, before I can even finish that thought, Sierra chimes in, " YOU LOOK OLD, Mom". Oh, woe is me.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Weston!

The baby of our family turned THREE on Monday! Boy, does time fly! Above, he plays with one of the highlights of his bday - the balloons:). Kids are like magnets to balloons for some reason. He had a lot of fun playing with them.
We went to Jungle Jim's or Jeepers to celebrate as a family. One of Wes' favorite meals is pizza, so, of course, we had to have some. Yummy.

Wes, Zane, and Sierra getting ready to SPIN!! The kids had a lot of fun riding all the rides there.

The "big boys" in the family seemed to disappear for a while. It was great to see them hanging out and having their male bonding time.


After Jeepers, we headed home to open presents and have the cake.
Happy 3rd Wes!



Grandma Cake and Papa gave him a Leapster2, but we call it his "gameboy". For the last several months, he has tried so hard to get his hands on his brothers' nintendo ds. So, now, he has one of his own. Look at that concentration!



We gave him a bike since he's a big boy now. We'll just need to wait a month or two to have some good bike riding weather.








Grandpa and Grandma Beanie gave Wes his very own teepee to play in....one that Grandma made herself...just for Wes!
What a cool fort! I think Zane is really going to enjoy this gift also.
I foresee a sleepover in it this weekend.


Gianna, Wes, and Alivia trying out the cool, new, teepee.

Since Papa and Grandma Cake sent their gift in the mail, we thought they'd enjoy seeing Wes open his present on our family blog.

Happy Birthday Weston. We're glad you're ours!

Good Luck Jacob!

Sunday was Jacob's (Todd's baby brother) missionary farewell. He is headed off to Guadalajara, Mexico. He leaves today. Jacob gave a great talk and bore a strong testimony of his desire to share the gospel. He'll be a great missionary. Good luck, Jacob!
And, since Todd was dressed up in his suit for the occasion, I couldn't pass up my photo-op.

Now, I just gotta get one of him in his cycle gear:). He's so hot!

Horse Training 101

So, our new horse, Storm, hasn't been too keen on getting into the water. In fact, he down right refuses to. Try playing tug-o-war with a thousand pound animal. One trail ride (a couple of weeks ago), we really worked on getting him into a puddle of water that we came across. Boy, was he stubborn.

Eventually, he ran through it...but he was still very nervous about it. When we got back to the trailer, we saw an even bigger puddle in front of the car and so we worked on it there again. We even got him to stand in it for a little bit. Well, last Sat. Sierra and I went out on another ride. We went down to the river bottom and he wouldn't get near the edge of the water. Stubborn horse. We even used the crop on his hind end, but he refused. It was bad because we let him get his way and gave in to him. We didn't know what else to do.
So, I get his bright idea. Next time we irrigate, we won't stall him up on the high ground with the other horses. We'll leave him out in the pasture where he can't avoid the irrigation. And so this morning, the irrigation came. Here he is, trying to stay on the high ground around the pasture.
But, then, he steps into it. "HEY - it's not that bad. In fact, it's kind of fun to play around in."

Yea!!! Hopefully, he'll just remember this next time we go to the river or come across a puddle in the middle of the trail.
We also had some visitors with our irrigation....five ducks! Boy, was Cash dying to get out there with them, but we didn't let him.

Here's a short clip - showing our successful horse training 101 - session 1 - on water:)

The devil vs The exorcist

The devil
vs. the exorcist

and the victim.

Or I could title this post "Nightmare on Harwell Rd."

Yesterday morning, Weston decided to take a bath as I was getting Zane and Sierra out the door for school. I told him to wait a minute as I tried to get the big kids going. I hear the bath water turn on....he can't wait, so he's doing it himself.

Next thing we hear, was a high pitched, horrible scream. Zane and I went running back in to Wes. He was standing outside of the tub, crying that a scorpian got him. Sure enough, there was a big bark scorpian swimming around in his tub water. Now, Wes has been stung THREE previous times so I wasn't stressing too much. I mean ....I knew it hurt, but I didn't think it was a big deal. So, I comforted him. I sent the bigs kids on their way. I got Wes dressed and put on some cartoons. He even stopped crying....just fussing a little. I tried to get his mind off it and I thought everything was okay now.

Well, twenty or so minutes later, he comes to me drooling, crying, and gagging like he was going to throw up. I asked him if he took a vitamin (pill?), but he said no. He continued to get worse. He was foaming out this slimy, bubbly saliva. Finally, it dawned on me....was this from the scorpain sting?! He wasn't calming down...it was getting worse by the minute.

I threw some clothes on, threw Wes in the car, and drove to the Urgent Care around the corner. I called Todd on the way and he met me there. It was getting worse by the second now. Wes' eyes started rolling and he was really crying now. I was so scared. I couldn't drive there fast enough.

I ran into Urgent Care and they immediately let us into the back as soon as they heard me say what was happening. Within a minute, they had called 911 and had informed me that an ambulance was coming to take him to the ER. Boy, was I losing it at this point. Wes was flailing and thrashing all around. He was crying and screaming. His eyes were rolling and he was foaming at the mouth. I couldn't believe what was happening.

Todd arrived at Urgent Care shortly after I did. Then, the paramedics arrived. Both the Urgent Care staff and the paramedics tried to put an IV in, but Wes was thrashing about way too much. Wes wanted Todd as they were getting him ready for the ambulance, so Todd drove with Wes in the ambulance. During the drive, they almost thought he was going to have a siezure because he was flailing about so much, but luckily he didn't. The ambulance took him to Gilbert Mercy Hospital for the "exorcism". It really did look like the poor kid was possessed. This is not an exaggeration!!! He was at stage four - the worse/highest reaction to the venom. The ER Dr. said this was one of the worst cases he had seen. After the longest TWO HOURS of our lives, he started calming down and coming back to us - after having recieved FIVE vials of anti-venom. (First, it took a while for them to do the paperwork and to get approval to use the anti-venom - since it's a study and not approved by the FDA yet...and then it also took a while for the stuff to start making a difference.) Poor Todd held him for the whole time...trying to contain Wes so he wouldn't hurt himself or pull out the IV. Todd said it was like wrestling with an alligator that was constantly trying to roll. Weston was just drenched in sweat. Those couple of hours seemed to last forever. Finally, by about 11:00am we were moved into another area because Wes was getting over it and the anit-venom was doing it's work. Cartoons were put on for Wes. It took a little while more for his eyes to stop fluttering... to even be able to work together and focus on the cartoons, but he eventually just laid there, exhausted as he watched Bob the Builder. We headed home about 12:15.

Talk about the worst experience that I have ever had!

All because this scorpian just put in more venom than the others. Wes could get stung tomorrow with a "normal" sting and be just fine...like his previous stings. It all depends on how much venom was put in.

What a nightmare!

On the way home, he said he wanted pizza though. Wes ate a slice and then we headed home. He then took a two hour nap at home. It was over and we were relieved.

Thanks to Gilbert Mercy Hospital. They were wonderful. Thanks to my parents who came and offered support. Thanks to my Dad and Todd for being able to give Wes a priesthood blessing during all of it. Thanks for the investigational study going on with this new anti-venom. It worked like a charm....well, it could've worked a little faster:). But, the other option is waiting it out in a hospital for a COUPLE OF DAYS with tons of drugs helping you to survive the pain. It really is supposed to be excruciating pain. Poor Wes. I'm glad it's over and I'm thrilled to have my happy boy back. May it NEVER happen again. I'll be real nervous, holding by breath, if one of my kids gets stung again...wondering how much venom was put in. And, thanks to Kelly and Megan for bringing in dinner. It was delicious!

**Note to anyone out there - make sure you get to a hospital that has anti-venom if such a thing happens to you or someone you're with. Not all hospitals have it! Of course, it's used for the more extreme cases - not just the pain and tingly one can get with the typical sting. But, I would hate for anyone to be "snowed" (as they call it) with a bunch of drugs as the patient just has to endure through the experience for a couple of days.

More tidbits from the Elks Youth Camp

How could I forget this one? Weston found the hose at the youth camp. Here we go again.... And, yes, Cash was involved in it also.

Anybody that knows my family, knows that we have some addicts in our family closet. Caffiene addicts that is. Whether it be Coke, Diet Coke, or Dr. Pepper, we gotta have it at EVERY family get together. Most of the men love to go get a "cool one" together. So, above, are Jackson, Jonathan, and Weston following in their fathers' footsteps (we were good and gave them non-caffienated pop though:) but don't tell the kids there's a difference. They were pretty excited to have pop.

And, since I was posting a couple more pics from the reunion, I thought I'd throw this one in of the popped tetherball after Cash had his fun with it:). He did NOT want to let go of it once he finally "caught" it.