The rest of Christmas/New Years

Picking up where I left off but quickly through the last couple of months...

Christmas was great.  I was pretty emotional with just having Haylee home and knowing it would be her last living at home Christmas.  It was hard not to be with the other kids but we FaceTimed and had a nice day.  

Joe and Colonel Cowley serving lunch Christmas Day at the dining facility.  It was fun to see the airman and wish them Merry Christmas. 

New year’s we spent at a Chief’s neighborhood party.  Haylee was with friends.  

Next blog will be my trip to Utah!  It was so much fun!! 

Holy Hades we are busy!!

Quick overview of December 6th through the 17th.  And yes I know it’s the 14th but I won’t have time to blog again for a bit cause we are BUSY.  Like don’t know what day it is BUSY.  

Here we go: 

6th- Joe home from Guam at 4:30. Attended three Christmas parties starting at 6. 

7th- MXG kids Christmas party in the morning pajamas and pancakes with Santa. Ward Christmas party in the evening, made a bunch of food Haylee performed magic in the talent show.  The bishop said her real talent was keeping all the primary kids attention at the same time. 

Maintenance group command.  We love the Cowleys!!

We have the BEST grinch 

He is a retired chief and he’s about 6’6! 

8th-day of REST

9th- Spouses club December social.  Ornament exchange.  I won best soup!  Wasn’t even trying just wanted to make sure we had enough food. Lol

10th - worked the thrift shop until 2:30. Hosted our chief spouses holiday party at 6. We have such a great group.  A second ornament exchange. 

11th - Haylee had young women in excellence for church.  Her last one.  The youth program is changing I January and I’m so glad.  I am honestly over it.  Haylee is kind of over it too so that doesn’t help. That sounds terrible it has been great for my kids My busy week didn’t help my attitude this evening.  Lol.  I kept a smile on and I am so thankful for the inspired programs for the youth.  

12th -Leslie and I attended a Team Minot Senior Leadership spouse social.  My third ornament exchange that week.  Joe and Colonel Cowley headed to a squadron Christmas party. 

13th -got some of the kids stuff wrapped (that I need to mail) made 100 pancakes for a breakfast with Santa thing Saturday morning, attended another squadron party with the Cowleys.

14th- got up at 7 to get ready and deliver pancakes, manned the gingerbread house station for 3 hours then helped clean up, went to the commissary and then to another -and our LAST- squadron holiday party, then we went to dinner with the Cowleys.  We are so lucky to be a part of their command team.  We have a lot of fun together. 

15th- I am speaking in sacrament meeting. Prepped my talk in bits and pieces all week.  Hope it flows smoothly. 

16th: Cookie drive, interview with the news station covering the cookie drive, thrift shop in life the evening. 

17th- thrift ship until 2:30, leave at 3:30 to attend our senior leadership team building social- curling and dinner. 

18th take a long nap with drool coming out of my mouth lol

Still teaching seminary everyday, prepping the kids for the end of year assessment and planning our seminary Christmas party.  

Like I said BUSY.  But we are all healthy and things are going smoothly even though they are crazy.  Lol. 

‘Tis the season!!  

It’s Thanksgiving!! And almost December!

What the heck? Time sure flies.  We decked the halls 10 days before thanksgiving this year because it was 40 degrees and you just don’t know how often that will happen in the great white north.  Joe said if he was getting out the stuff for the outside lights he was going to put up the trees too.  So there ya go!  I am always a hard core after thanksgiving decorator but since it was so late this year I was ok with it.  And it’s a good thing we didn’t wait to put the lights up.  48 degrees last weekend and in two days we will be getting a blizzard lol.  4-10 inches so we will see.  We usually fall on the lower end.  We don’t get a ton of snow up here actually.  It truthfully gets too cold to snow lol.  

Today was BUSY.  I hosted cocoa and coffee for several Chief’s spouses.  Can you believe I have never made coffee before in my LIFE? Like ever.  Lol.  I don’t drink it but ya think I would have made it before.  Good news though I own a coffee pot for when Joe’s parents visit and the coffee has directions on the back! No one said it was terrible but no one said it was good either lol.  My hot cocoa got raving reviews but that is because I am a pro at it!  And I put love in there.  That’s the secret ingredient.  Right after my morning company left my friend Leslie stopped by.  Her hubby is Joe’s commander and I adore her!  I am so thankful we are part of their command team.  Anywho, she and I could talk for days but she needed to vent and I was happy to listen.  She was here for an hour And a half or so.  She left and I started prepping for tomorrow. I cut up veggies and cheese, made the stuffing, made the pumpkin crack, and boiled and shredded two packages of chicken breasts so I don’t have to cook for the next week!  Yay!  While I was cooking I called a few friends to tell them I was thankful for them. It was good to visit and work at the same time. Then I saw a friend had posted on Facebook that she was in need of an elf on the shelf.  She had searched high and low and couldn’t find theirs.  I messaged her that I had one she could borrow so she came over.  She was in a hurry but ended up staying a while and chatting.  It feels good to be a trusted listener.  As we chatted about the elf and all the antics you have to come up with I told her our elf, Crimson, would often challenge us to do good deeds.  She loved that idea!!!  Super loved it!  I happened to have a new printed Light The World calendar on the fridge  so I grabbed it and shared with her the church’s worldwide initiative.  She was so thankful for the daily ideas.  It was a fab way to start the giving season.  

I have so many things to be thankful for, my family...oh how they bless my life, my home, my friendships across the world, the gospel, my Savior.  Richly, richly blessed.  I want to note here that a few weeks ago I was mad at Heavenly Father.  MAD. Sierra was really struggling.  I asked Him why he had spared her life in the crash just to torture her with more pain???  WHY?  All the whole having complete faith that there IS a reason.  But why is it so dang slow? WHY can’t she be better NOW? she was really having a hard time which meant I was having a hard time.  I prayed and prayed and prayed for her to see the happy in her life, to see the light, to SEE the tender mercies.  And ya know what? Things got better.  Her life is hard.  Super hard.  But she is fighting every day.  I am so thankful for her example of endurance.  I would’ve given up long ago.  Keep going friends.  It’s what we have to do.  No matter the circumstances of our lives. 

Here are a few pics...

This little man turned 6 months old on the 24th!  He is so happy!!  We adore him. 

Decorating 





A picture of me crying because dumb Disney made a dumb commercial about a girl going off to college and her dad crying and watching videos of their Disney adventures while she packs, with the tag line “Because they’re only little for a little while.” Cue all the crying!!! I am already sad that this is a year of “lasts” Dang Disney! 

My cute seminary kids being amazed I could turn water into “wine” I had some tricks up my sleeve that day!

Then they cheers’d their cups and Braden said “this is us pretending there are more people here.”  LOL

Haylee and I went to see Frozen II.  We LOVED IT!  Super loved!!  We may go again!! 

And Haylee is getting really good at figure skating.  


Gotta go for now.  Happy Thanksgiving reader(s)!  I am thankful for you! 

Sunday

Today was the primary program at church.  It is my FAVORITE SUNDAY!!  Those kiddos are just so darn cute!  

I look a little cray cray in this photo lol.  Joe and Haylee were making faces before this one.  Goofs!

The rest of Church was good and Haylee was set apart as the young women’s class president.  The first one in the Minot 4th ward with the new changes.  

We came home and watched some football, Haylee napped, we had mis match dinner (fend for yourself night lol) and decided to craft.  We painted some ceramic Christmas ornaments I have had laying around forever. 

Gotta add some polka dots to make it more fun!  :) 


It was a nice family day.  

She’s 18

A few days ago our cute Haylee Jo turned 18!!!  One eight!  How does this happen? How do kids grow up so darn quick??  

Haylee was not excited for her birthday.  She does not like change.  Ever.  Even in turning a year older.  And this birthday was a big one.  I promised her Not much would change from her being 17 on Tuesday and 18 on Wednesday but I am not sure she believed me.  We had a great day celebrating.  We started off with doughnuts for seminary, then I picked her up from school at 12:30 and we went to lunch and did a little shopping at Target. She was supposed to go back to school for her last class but talked me out of taking her back.  It was just Spanish after all and this will likely be the last birthday we spend with her in person for a while.   We picked up her cake and headed home.  We waited for dad to come home (he was in school this week too for his PMP certificate prep, don’t ask me what that means because I have no idea!). When dad got home we headed back to town for dinner at her favorite place Longhorn steakhouse.  Joe tried to talk her into a 25.00 dinner but she went with her regular choice of an 8 oz sirloin.  They gave her a free ice cream sundae and we came home and had more cake and ice cream.  I had been dealing with some spouses club/thrift shop issues that afternoon and by bedtime I had a splitting headache.  I’m sure it had nothing to do with eating junk all day and lots of cake.  Blah.  Anyway, here is a bunch of stuff I love about Haylee. 

*she is kind *she is loyal! *she is a defender of those less fortunate/odd/“Weird” *she is so darn smart! *she has the most gorgeous hair in all the land- she doesn’t really care lol *she is beautiful without makeup - she doesn’t really care *she is brave *she is obedient *she is passionate about learning *she does her own thing *she is funny! *she is witty- which sometimes turns into snarky -but mostly witty *she loves her momma, and dad ❤️ *she is a cute auntie, she was very worried about moving down the ladder of her brothers favorite people but she loves that Emmett boy and he will always have a protector in his Aunt Haylee/Aunt Heyhey/aunt lollie (Haylee did not go for that last nickname at all!) *she loves her Heavenly Father *she loves going to the temple (she got to be a witness today!!) *she does not accept that things have to stay one way because “that’s just how it is” -she is a changer *she is so creative!  

I think that makes 18, that wasn’t my initial plan but I got close and decided to finish it :) here are some pictures of our Haylee girl 

Some of her senior pics: 

This was her selection for the yearbook

We all loved this one too! 

Minot has some great murals downtown 

First day of senior year, also the first year I printed signs for her to hold- never to late right?  

On her birthday 

Those curls! 

More senior pics 

Love her to pieces!!  

Emmett Colton

Life is busy and I am missing so many small updates.  I wanted to post about Sierra’s accident and then about Emmett.  Big stories in our lives this year!!  Emmett couldn’t really be a quick post so I was trying to find time when I could sit down and focus.  I got three hour of sleep last night so obviously this is the perfect time. Ha ha ha. 

The night of Sierra’s accident they had decided to induce Kassi. That was the 22nd.  He wasn’t born until early in the morning on the 24th.   He took his sweet time coming!  Poor Kass was in labor for 30-ish hours!!  Later we decided that Emmett had to straddle the veil between heaven and earth a bit longer so he could help his Auntie Sierra through her accident.  💙 

I tried to stay up through the night of the 23rd/24th waiting for news but I was exhausted.  I kept my phone turned on and still slept through the ringing when HD called around 4am to say they had decided to do a c-section.  Poor Kass was having a hard time.  I woke up pretty quickly after he left a message and prayed for them all.  Emmett was born just before 4:30am.  He weight 7’11 and was 20 inches long (I think) I need to go back and look!  They sent pictures as soon as they could.  Trina, Kass’s mom, was with them the whole time.  She is an angel!!  We FaceTimed them later that day.  Oh how excited we were to have this little one join our family!!  We all tried again and again to figure out his hair color.  Would he be a ginger like his momma? It looked that way at first but then the kids said blonde.  I of course thought they just weren’t holding him in the right light.  Well I am here to tell you we still don’t know what color that kids hair is!  Lol.  Some days it looks reddish, mostly it looks brownish blonde.  I think he will end up blonde with a hint of strawberry. ❤️ Emmett is now five months old and the light of our lives.  He is the happiest, smiliest most giggly baby ever!!  We FaceTimed him once a week or so in the beginning. Now we do it every coupe of days.  He is so interactive and laughs when we play peek a boo together.  I think he really knows us!  He probably wonders why Mimi lives in the phone but all is well.  He sleeps like a champ and has been such a good baby.  HD and Kass are great parents.  That kid is so lucky!!  They adore him and each other.  It’s a pretty sweet life.  

Haylee and I saw him in May at three days old, hung out for a few days then drove to Cali.  Saw him a couple more days when we drove back.  Then we all went out in August for his blessing. HD gave him a beautiful blessing and Sierra flew in from Cali so we were all together.  It was an amazing week.  It was so good to see Sierra walking!  Unassisted!!  She still has a slight limp and is scarred but she handles her roadblocks like a warrior.  

Here are pics from the first five months of Emmett’s life.  

Just kidding I have done this post five times and it keeps messing up!  We will do a couple of recent pictures and then update from there!! 

He is a darling happy boy!!! 

The accident part 2

I got to Sierra about 8 days after her accident (I stopped in Utah to see baby Emmett - more to come on that amazing little one in the next post) 

I didn’t rush to her because she wasn’t alone, she was in the hospital (where they took mediocre care of her) and she has my dad and Joey.  So let’s talk about that real quick. About 6 days after the accident Joey said he needed to think about some things and that hospitals were “hard for him”.   Seriously.  When I got there day 8/9 he hadn’t come to see her and wasn’t checking in.  Day 13 he broke up with her completely.  I went to get lunch and came back to a hysterical Sierra.  She was sobbing, hyperventilating and just losing it.  I did my best to calm her but nothing was working.  She wanted to get out of bed and run. Not easy to do with a recently repaired femur and ankle (her ankle needed two plates and a bunch of screws to stabilize the break)  we got her out of bed and walking the hall a little bit she was dying to go outside.  She needed fresh air and to see the sun. We had asked for days if she could go outside but they gave her the runaround.  That day I found a nurse (it was actually student nurse George cause he was the first person I saw) and told him “George, find her nurse.  We ARE going outside. Get us a wheelchair.”  After a quick explanation they did and we went out and Sierra felt the sun for the first time in two weeks.  Obviously Joey was a super jerk and Sierra is WAY better off without him.  The pain he caused her was almost worse than the accident. Hate that guy. 

Ok now back to when we got there.  I spent every day cheering, advocating and trying to keep Sierra comfortable.  They had not let her have a shower -and never did in that hospital. It was awful. I got her in the bathroom and washed her hair and helped her clean up all over. When I was helping to take off her underclothes I saw her bum and back for the first time. She had a HUGE bruise running up her right butt cheek. How the heck did that happen? Obviously Sierra didn’t know it was there since she couldn’t see it. I commented “How on earth did you get a bruise here?” She replied “must have been where the angles were bracing me.” I really think that had to be it.  Oh that poor girl.  She was so beat up.  Day 14 she had surgery on her orbital bone. That was the exact surgery Joe had on his eye when he got hit with the softball.  The doc was impressed with my orbital bone surgery knowledge lol. Every surgery set her back in pain so much.  It was horrible. She was doing ok then they operated on her eye and she was back to square one. Out of control pain, just miserable. They afternoon they told her she was being discharged.  What. The. Heck?!? Her pain was a nine she hadn’t eaten or moved but they wanted me to load her up in the car and take her home. The whole time the plan was to get her to a rehab hospital.  She was in no condition to go back home.  She hadn’t even showered!!  I was on the phone with her case worker, the rehab place and her nurses.  We finally made a plan to get her to the rehab hospital. We had to transport via ambulance. Keep in mind two seconds before that they were going to throw her in the car with me. Anywho, the ambulance came around 8:30pm. The nurse gives me a bunch of paper work and tells me I need to go to the pharmacy to get Sierra’s meds.  WHAT? It’s almost 9 at night and now I have to find a rite aid to get meds? Awesome. I ran to rite aid, talked to the pharmacist like a crazy person because I am not Sierra but need her meds.  The pharmacist says to give them a minute. After 10-ish minutes they call me up and tell me that the rehab hospital has their own pharmacy and in fact four of these five prescriptions have been sent over there electronically.  I cried then I was FUMING.  I ran out of there and down to the rehab hospital. The place is locked up but the ambulance that took Sierra is there they give me her room number and about that time some nice lady is walking out the front door and she holds it open for me.  I had to look completely crazy. Crying, carrying three vases of flowers, goodness. I went in the place looks deserted. No big signs so I am wandering hallways looking for a room number.  I finally find her, I am so relieved and she tells me they have her almost zero pain meds. The rehab place had to follow the hospital orders until  the rehab docs saw her the next morning. She had had surgery THAT DAY. Her pain was a 9!!  I lost it.  I was just bawling s. Poor Sierra.  She was telling me she was ok and trying to comfort me.  Oh what a night. It was just terrible. I stayed with her for a while and had to get home to get some sleep.  I went to Tys  and cried myself to sleep. The next morning I get a text from Sierra that says the rehab docs almost choked on their coffee when they realized how little pain meds she had been given considering she has EDS and was a trauma patient!!  They adjusted her meds quickly and got her a shower.  A real actual shower!!  What a blessing Casa Colina would turn out to be.  Sierra spent two weeks there and they were amazing. We met some wonderful people and they just took such good care of Sierra.  I had to leave her about day 19 and it was crazy hard.  The only thing giving me the strength to walk out the door was knowing that the nurses and docs at CC would take such good care of her.  

The months since her accident have been rough.  Sierra is amazing.  Not that we didn’t know it before but this has brought it to a whole new level.  She has strength that goes deeper than anything I can describe. She is full of grace and keeps a smile on her darkest days.  Our testimonies have all grown because of her.  

She went back to work about 8 weeks after the accident. She was driving about 12 weeks later.  She has just been a shining example to us all.  I will post more pics soon.  Just wanted to get the words out. :) 

My next post will be all about our baby Emmett.  He is a joy in our lives.  💙