Why I love my job....

Australia Part 1

This goes along with my last post of why I love my job. This past summer I was able to go to Australia with Makaila and my parents for two whole weeks. I was a little nervous leaving behind my husband and my 4 other kiddos. I honestly didn't know if I would make it the whole two weeks but I did. The trip was amazing and we loved it. I was a little worried about the 15 hour flight from LA but when you travel business elite you don't feel it. The last time I flew to New Zealand about 3 years ago I remember being tired for days and I think it took me two weeks to adjust to the time change. We landed in Sydney and I did not feel like I had been flying all night it was amazing. Once we arrived in Sydney and got through customs we took the train out of the airport and met up with Brother David Potts. We took the train down to Wollongong where we stayed a couple of nights with him. Brother Potts is an older man who has never married. He takes care of all the missionaries who serve in his area. Potts as we call him was very close with my brother when he served in Australia and comes out a couple of times a year and even came out to his wedding. Potts took us to the largest Buddhist Temple in the southern hemispere, down to at Kiama, and then into the coolest little town called Berry where we at a little bakery that made these amazing meat pies. I never liked meat pies growing up here but the meat pies in Australia are completely different then a meat pie here. We went to Seven Mile Beach and then drove through the mountains and countryside and saw waterfalls and beautiful mountains. We also saw where the missionary fell a few years ago. He is so lucky to be alive!!! I don't have pictures from this part of my trip because I didn't have an sd card in my camera and didn't know.

Just a little longer

I will be back to blogging soon and have many things to blog about like my trip to Australia, Summer, Sports, and life. I will have to be much better at blogging seeing this will most likely be the way my husband keeps up on our lives since he will be leaving to Asia for 6 months to a year. Yes I am freaking out!!!! We have never really been apart our whole married life and I am not looking forward to being somewhat of a single mom to 5 kids. Thanks goodness for my job so he will be able to come home hopefully once a month and we will be able to go visit him once in a while. The positive side is I will be able to blog more since I won't have him there as a permanent fixture to our computer. So after next Monday I expect to be taking a lot more pictures, videos, and doing alot more blogging.

ksl.com - Thousands converging on Salt Lake City for Days of '47 parade

Every July 24th my kids go with my mom-in-law and sister-in-laws and camp overnight for the Days Of 47 Parade. This year Tila was interviewed on KSL, you can click the link below to see her, she was really excited!

ksl.com - Thousands converging on Salt Lake City for Days of '47 parade

Two more Alaska pics

Two more picture from our Alaska trip, the moose I mentioned on our walk through Kincaid Park and a picture taken at the beach.

Summer Fun

As much as I would love to post the picture along with this post I will spare my son embarrassment for now.

A couple of weeks ago our friends the Proctors invited us to go boating. I was so excited I have missed boating. Growing up my dad always had a boat and we live for the summers going to the lake skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing. Two years ago my Dad's boat killed over and so we have not been able to go.

We packed up the kids and headed down to Provo marina to meet up with the Proctors. We all loaded up the boat for a day of fun. The kids were so excited and couldn't wait to get out in the water. The Porctors had a wake rider, it is like a surfboard but you ride the wake created by the boat. McKay decided he wanted to try it so Brett was out with all of the kids letting the ride with him. McKay wanted to do it on his own. The boat started going and as McKay tried to get up he was pulled forward. We all started yelling at him to let go of the rope. He had a sure look of panic in his face and we thought maybe because he was alone in the lake. We all kept yelling for him to let go of the rope and we were coming for him. He finally let go of the rope and as we came closer we found out the sheer look of panic wasn't because he was alone in the lake, it was because the water pulled his pants right off of him and he was buck naked all but his life jacket! He did manage to grab a hold of his shorts but couldn't get them back on in the water. We do have the butt shot of him standing on the ski deck putting his shorts back on. We will definitely hold onto it for blackmail in the future though. We all had a good time up until the rope got caught on the propeller and we had to be towed back into the dock. Thanks Brett and Selena for the fun day!

Alaska

My brother Ryan and his wife Megan have been living in Alaska for the past year. Ryan has always loved aviation and knew from the time he was little that he was going to be a pilot and work in aviation. Ryan does have his pilots license but because it's so difficult, expensive, and takes a long time to get your hours if you are not in the military to become a commercial pilot he decided to go into air traffic control. He was accepted into the FAA's program up in Anchorage and will graduate in December.

I have heard so many amazing things about Alaska and what a beautiful place it is that we decided to visit while I had some time off this summer. One of the benefits working for the airline is the free flights so we decided since the flights looked good this past weekend to go up for a visit. Summer is usually a very difficult time to travel standby to Alaska because it the tourist season with all the cruise ships and the salmon fishing.

We left Thursday and we landed in Anchorage at about 12:30am. When we left Salt Lake City at 9:30 it was completely dark and as we flew it was if we were chasing the sun. We landed in Anchorage and it was still light outside! By the time we got our luggage and got to my brothers house around 1:30 it was dark but by 3am it was light again and even the dark wasn't pitch dark.

Alaska is just so BIG! There is so much wildlife and vegetation. Everything was so green, the ground was covered in green, it reminded me a lot of Hawaii without the warm climate and the palm trees. While there we hiked to Byron Glacier, visited the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center, Bird Creek, Kincaid Park, Blueberry Loop, and Flattop. While walking down to the beach at Kincaid Park there was a huge moose right off the trail grazing. Seeing these animals in the open is just amazing! We didn't take to many pics but here are a few.

I guess we are Smores!

The other night Taylor, Isaac, and I were driving home from dinner and this was the conversation Isaac who is 3 and my husband had....

Isaac: Dad you are chocolate.

Taylor: I am chocolate, well if I am chocolate what is mom?

Isaac: Mom is a marshmallow!

Taylor: Well if I am chocolate and mom is marshmallow what are you?

Isaac: I'm a graham cracker!

We all started laughing and Taylor said well then what are your brothers and sisters? and Isaac said they are graham crackers too! I don't why I thought that was the funniest thing for a 3 year old to come up with. Every day since this conversation Isaac will come up to me and give me a love and say, Mom I'm your little graham cracker.

The Belly Fat Cure

So my new favorite book I have been reading and experementing with this summer is The Belly Fat Cure but Jorge Cruise. I love, love, love this book and all of the recipes I have tried so far. This is really not a diet but a way of living. I know all diets say that but this really is. I find this so simple and satisfying. Basically everyday you eat 6 servings of carbs and 15 grams of sugar. One serving of carbs is anything that has between 5-20 carbs, 21-40 =2, and 40-60=3. I was amazed at what I was putting into my body even when I thought I was eating healthy. I have started reading labels like a mad man and looking how much sugar is in everything I eat. The other day I grabbed some Yoplait 99% fat free yogurt and I look at the lable and it has 27 grams of sugar in just one little yogurt!!! I love fruit and even though fruit is good for you it has lots of sugar so I have to decide where I want my sugar to come from. One banana has 7 grams of sugar. This book has 5 weeks of menus and over 100 recipes. One of the menus is called quick and easy and it is for days that you are on the run and has fast food things to eat and they are not salads. You can go to Taco Bell and get 2 crunchy tacos supreme, Carl's Jr and have a spicy chicken sandwich or a jumbo chili dog, KFC grilled chicken breast w/ mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans, etc. I love that you don't have to leave out the mayo or resort to the fat-free or light versions. I have come to learn that the more fat-free or low fat the more sugar it has. I have lost 4 pounds in a one week just by following the 6/15 ratio. I love that I can eat pancakes for breakfast, eggs, bacon, toast, I can eat pizza for lunch, and I can even eat a hamburger. One of my favorite things is a margherita pizza. I take 2 tomatoes and put them in my food processor and crush them and add a little italian seasoning for my sauce. I then put it on a whole wheat pita and put fresh mozarella cheese on and top with 4 slices of a roma tomatoe, a little evoo, fresh parmesan cheese and some basil and bake it for 10 minutes. You can make a meat version, veggie version, hawaiian version or whatever you like. I have made some amazing enchiladas, stir-fry, barbequed hamburgers, brownies, and pasta. One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is chips and salsa but I have always felt bad eating them before but now I don't. I used to always resort to the soft taco because it had "less fat" than the crunchy but I have learned the white flour and the sugar in the tortilla is worse for the belly than the corn tortilla.

The best part about this is that my kids will eat it and they have loved everything I make and they love making their own pizzas. This has been awesome because having a child with diabetes this way of eating has kept her blood sugar in check because we are eliminating those foods that cause the blood sugar to spike.

Running

I am not a runner!!!! Around November I was convinced by some friends at Rage to run the Red Rock Relay down in southern Utah in September. I really don't know what I got myself into. I try and run at least 3-4 a week. I really don't enjoy running and I am literally procrastinating my run every day. Lucky for me I have a husband that pushes me and goes with me every time. I keep waiting for it to be easier and for me to start to enjoy it and get that so called runner's high, but nope it's not happening! Last night while running I did get to the end of my run and did not feel done so for the first time I did the loop a second time. I had to stop and walk part of it but then ran again and felt good when I was back home. The Red Rock Relay is is a 170 mile relay race and we have a team of 12. We all run 3 legs of about 6 miles each in 24 hours. This is definately going to be the most challenging thing I've done physically in a long time if ever. I know to you marathoners I probably sound like a whimp! I am really grateful to live where I do because there is no better place to help me train than right here.

It's Been A Very Long Time

Well it has been a very long time since I have updated my blog. I just don't feel like I have anything to write about when indeed their is alot. We made it through the Holidays and I can't believe it is all ready March. I really don't like to blog when I don't have any pictures so I will have to download my pictures and update again. I will just give a rundown of our year so far.
In January we took all of our kids to Disneyland for a week. We were soaking wet but had a blast. We went when El Nino hit and Disneyland was a lake but we didn't let that stop us, after all that is what ponchos, umbrellas, and jackets are for. We didn't have to stand in any lines because there was nobody there. We also celebrated Vai's 16th birthday and Isaac's 3rd Birthday. February was a complete blur to me because I started with a new work schedule which I now work 4am till 12:30pm with Tuesday and Wednesdays off. I am now adjusted to being up at that time of the day but 12:30 hits and I am beat but with a 3 year old I don't really get to take a nap and then before I know it kids are coming home, homework needs to be done, dinner made, and baths and bedtime. I usually don't get to bed until 9 and probably don't fall asleep until about 10. I pretty much have no energy ever!!! Sundays are by far my hardest because I have to wake up earlier to actually shower and get myself ready so that when I finish work at 12:30 I can go to church from 1-3. I have thought about becoming inactive and taking a nap while the kids and hubby go but just can't bring myself to do it. I guess it is going to church and renewing by covenants and being uplifted that gets me through the week. I feel really blessed that my husband and I both have jobs and that we are able to provide for our family in this day and age. I haven't set any resolutions for this year but I am just taking it a day at a time and striving on being better today than I was yesterday. Everybody has been asking about Vai and what else can I say other than she is a miracle. After being so sick this summer and bringing her home and the Dr. telling us she had just 2-3 months to live she is doing amazing. She is now going to school full time again and her heart looks better than it has looked in a long time. Heavenly Father has a mission for her and their is a reasone she is still here and we are blessed to have her in our lives and part of our family.

Family Pictures

Finally something to blog about! I have been slacking and haven't felt like blogging about anything lately until today. We had our family pictures done two weeks ago and I was little worried because we had major wind and my hair kept blowing across my face and getting stuck in my lipstick. I just got them back and was very pleased. Thank you so much to our awesome photographer Caroline. Here are a few of my favorites.

4th of July and 24th of July

We had fun this summer spending the Holidays with family. For the 4th of July we went to my sister Emily's and had a BBQ with their family, my parents, and their friends Colt and Christy. The food was great and the kids had a lot of fun playing and watching fireworks together. The 24th of July we went to Shawn and Britney's for a a BBQ and then we drove up to the hospital to watch the fireworks with Vai out on the hospital rooftop patio. Britney had a ton of glow sticks and gave them to me to give to my kids. When we got to the hospital there were a lot of other families up there with their kids. I decided my kids didn't need anymore glow sticks and so I decided to pass them out to all the other kids up on the patio. Most of those kids faces lit up, they were so excited to have a bracelet or a necklace. It turned out to be alot of fun. I am grateful to live in this country where we have such amazing access to good health care, wonderful Doctors, and the advanced medical technology we have to save lives. I am grateful for the freedoms we enjoy as part of living in this great nation.

Vai

So as most of you know Vai spent most of her summer in the hospital. Since coming home from the hospital she has done surprisingly well but her life is consumed with taking pills and giving shots for diabetes. She swallows pills 5 time a day and gives herself about 4 shots a day. We spend every Thursday at Primary Childrens for her cardiology appts where they do her lab work and check all of her drug levels, she has an EKG, and an echocraiogram, and then she sees the DR. The staff and Dr's there are wonderful and we love them all they are a huge part of our lives. I took a few pictures just to give you an idea of what she has and is going through and another look at our summer.

Summer Fun

Our summer was a little hectic and we weren't able to do a lot with Vai in the hospital. We did take the kids a couple of times up the mountains to have a picnic and spend some time together. We went once up to American Fork Canyon as a family and then once up to Bridal Veil Falls with our cousins and also with the Warner's while they were visiting from Texas.

Our little Wannabee

Makaila and Tila play soccer, McKay plays football, and Isaac thinks he does it all! These past few months I find Isaac putting on the shinguards, socks, and cleats asking me to take him to his soccer game. The next minute I find him in McKay's football pads, helmet, and football cleats telling me he's gonna go play football. I have also caught him ready to go scuba diving. By the end of the day after all his adventures I find him sleeping with the football helmet and if I try to put it away, he wakes up and screams at me.

Tila's Question...

The other day I was helping Tila get ready for school and this was the conversation...

Tila: Mom do people ever ask you if I was adopted?
Mom: No, why would they ask that?
Tila: Because I look like I am adopted, I don't look anything like you.
Mom: Well you may not look like me but you do look a lot like your Dad and I promise you that you came out of my tummy!
Tila: Yeah, I know I just look like my Dad, but none of your kids look like you. We all look like we are adopted.

I thought it was pretty funny because none of my other kids have ever questioned the fact that they are mine.

Vai

I have had so many people asking about Vai. I don't want to put the information out their on facebook because it's so public. A friend told me about a website that I can go on and create a page for Vai that I can update and people can leave comments etc. Please feel free to check it out.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/vai

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughtfulness on our behalf, we love you all.

A Boy's Best Friend

Isaac loves my Mom's little dog Lizzie. The other day I went running and left Isaac at my Mom's. Usually I take Isaac with me and push him in the stroller and if I go with my Mom we sometimes take Lizzie and she sits on Isaac's lap as we go. Well I guess Isaac was mad that I left them home and insisted that we take Lizzie for a walk. I thought we would walk to the end of the street and back but NO, Isaac dragged Lizzie and I about another mile. Isaac had so much fun and didn't want to go home.

Taking care of baby birds.

Tila is my little animal lover. The kids go to Grandma's when I'm at work and it seems that stray dogs, stray cats, and anything else always finds its way to Grandma's. There was a nest in one of my Mom's trees and apparently the baby bird fell out of the nest and broke it's wing. Tila spent the whole day worried about this poor baby bird and sat out on the lawn with it, finding it worms, and just caring for it.