Kirtland----CHECK!

After Conal's family reunion we headed out to Kirtland Ohio. We already had our entire house packed up for a couple of days......why not check two things off our list in one weekend. Not bad!

I am now realizing that I am going to have a hard time keeping this post a reasonable length. It wasn't easy dragging all of the kids everywhere and keeping them from touching everything but it was SO worth it. I learned so many new things even though I have been to Kirtland before and we had such an amazing experience.

First we went to the John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio.

This is where Joseph and Emma lived for over a year. Several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were received in this little farm house, in a room on the second floor which they call the revelation room. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Joseph saw the Savior here as well.

This is also where Joseph was tarred and feathered in the middle of the night and as a result of the cold one of their twins passed away. I have gained a greater appreciation for this story since I've lived through a midwest winter!

Then we went over to the Kirtland Temple.





I don't want to pick on the Community of Christ church, but I have to say that the feeling at the Kirtland temple (owned by the Community of Christ) and the feeling at the other places we visited in Kirtland (owned by the LDS church) was completely different. To help with this I tried to remember how many sacrifices had to be made by the saints (Conal's and my own ancestors included), and that this was at one time a dedicated House of the Lord.

Next we headed over to the Newel K. Whitney store. This was so different than the last time I was there! The whole area has been restored and looks like a mini Nauvoo and they now have a vistors' center. I LOVED it!

This is the creek that they used to baptize new members in. Conal and I wonder if Edwin D. Wooley (my great great great grandfather) was baptized here as he became a member of the church while living in East Rochester, Ohio which is about 90 miles outside of Kirtland.

The store was next. Many neat things happened in this little store.

The first bishop's storehouse:
The school of the prophets:

The Word of Wisdom was received in this room:

We also saw the Whitney home.

I love this little chair because it was one of the few things that the Whitney's took with them when they left. It made it all the way to Salt Lake but has been returned to its rightful place.

After this we headed over to the saw mill. This is where the wood was cut for Kirtland Temple. Imagine our surprise (ok I admit it, I *gasped*) when we found out it was owned an operated by Conal's great great great grandfather, Joel Hills Johnson. We didn't know that until they told us. Apparently he was a genius in his time as he figured out that it saved water if the water went under the water wheel instead of over.




He also owned the ashery which helped finance much of the building of the Kirtland Temple.

We were also surprised to hear that his house is still standing.

We couldn't go inside because Senior missionaries live in it.

Thank you to the two cute and PATIENT sister missionaries who were our tour guides.
Oh man! Now I want to go back. I love church history. Anyone up for a church history tour?

Family reunion in the Smoky Mountains

We sure have been having fun seeing a different area of the country. I've never been to the Smoky Mountains before and it's been on "the list" since before I officially made "the list" so thank you Curtis for choosing it as the venue for this year's family reunion.

What a beautiful place! It is so green. We stayed in some beautiful (and I have to say really neat-o) cabins near Bryson City, North Carolina. I don't know WHAT we were thinking but we do not have one picture of the cabins, the cute playground that the kids played at, or the pool.

We do however, have picture of a little hike that we took to look at the gorgeous scenery.

It was a short hike as you might guess as Jackson went up in a stroller and Macy went up like this: Thanks to Aunt Jeana and Aunt Michelle for hiking up with the girls!

The kids had a great time with their cousin Lane. I love this picture because Lane is trying to be all grown up.

So cute!

In case you were unaware, Craig won the annual "RISK" game. I guess he was able to take advantage of the absence of Bruce Holmstead, and Cedric wasn't there to join with Curtis in their "who-can-we-make-win" shenanigans. hee hee. I'm not sure who won Alligator Rhythm, the name game, or the state game (I was upstairs trying to keep the younger kids out of trouble=)) but I know everyone had a great time.

One Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed.....She fell off and broke her NOSE!

About a month and a half ago (when Conal was visiting his dad in Idaho Falls after his stroke) I had camp meeting over at my house. We planned it late enough in the evening for the kids to be in bed since Conal was out of town. Apparently Alexia got bored and decided to jump on the bed. No one really saw what happened but from what we can figure out she fell off the bed and bumped her nose a good one. I could tell it hurt her but there wasn't any blood or anything so I thought she was fine. The next morning she had a little bruising under her eyes. It wasn't a big deal. No one noticed but Conal and me. In a couple of days that went away but a couple of days after that she had some more bruising on her nose. That went away too but then in a couple of days it came back.

About a month after the incident she had a well-child visit and we mentioned this to her doctor. He said that it might be broken and to take her in for an x-ray that night. The next day they called us and, sure enough, it was broken. Her doctor said that we needed to see a ENT right away and they were able to get us in the next day.

The ENT said that the break would heal fine but that he was concerned with the bleeding because it could cause an infection. He said that if it didn't go away we needed to take her back in.

In the next week or so it got much worse but we were out of town so I called first thing Monday morning and they said that her doctor was out of town but that she needed to be seen that day. So, we took her to another ENT in the same office who said that she needed to have it drained the next morning.

This morning Conal took her over to the hospital for the procedure. Since she was going under she couldn't have anything to eat or drink. It's hard to explain that to a 4 year old and she was very sad until I told her that she could buy High School Musical 2 after she was done. This was her expression when I told her that :

From then on out she never complained or cried (more than I can say for her mother).

Here she is before:

The little koala bear they gave her was a hit!

Here she is waking up:

And at home:

It's a good thing we took her in when we did. She has an infection that was worse than they anticipated and she has to have a little drainage tube out the side of her nose until next week.

Alexia doesn't seem to be traumatized in any way which I am SO grateful for!

For the last month we've been singing "no more Lexis jumping on the bed!" She always has a big grin when we sing that.

It was Mom's crazy idea!

Yes, I know. Usually Conal is the fun parent. Not this time folks.

The kids had been bugging us all week to get out the Spiderman Slip n' Slide so we busted it out on Saturday. I don't know what got into me as I am usually the safety freak (not to be confused with the clean freak or germ freak which I have also been called =)) but I thought it would be a good idea to line up the play set slide and the slip 'n slide on the hill.

Yes, I know mom, "accident waiting to happen". I bet you are glad you weren't here to witness it all. ha ha. Especially since Jackson would never get out of the way:

and repeatedly got taken out by the older 3.

Anyway, when I first suggested it Conal thought it was a lame-o idea..........which of course he took back by the end of the day. However, I do have to say, knowing what I know now (that although we didn't know at the time Alexia had a broken nose{more on that in another post}) the slip n' slide alone would not pass my rigorous safety inspection.

Oh well. No one got hurt and the kids had a blast. Lucky for us, I think that slip 'n slide has had it's last hurrah.

Oh yes.....and leave it to Ali and Jack to find the nearest mud puddle.

After we got everyone bathed and dressed we headed over to Silver Springs State Park. It's a beautiful place near the Fox River.

We ate dinner, let the kids play at the playground and Conal and I even got in a few games of Bocce before Jackson started picking up the balls and chucking them. Luckily he didn't hit anyone. Those balls are heavy!

Conal won (of course!) but I got in a few good shots myself including this one:

which Conal promptly blew out of the water on his next shot, and these:

which Conal couldn't do anything about because I had the last turn. I HAD to take a picture of that one for proof. ha ha!

We had a great weekend.........and I have the mosquito bites to prove it!

Happy Birthday Blondie!

In one way I can't believe its been a year, and in another way it seems like we've always had Macy. Either way I'm glad that it is 7/07/09 instead of 07/07/08. ha ha.

Here is the run down:

We left for the hospital at 10:00 am because I was scheduled for the OR at 12 noon. Here is the before picture:

4 hours later (after getting bumped twice for emergencies) we have a 6 lbs 12 oz girl with light brown hair and blue eyes.

She had some trouble breathing so she was with us for a few minutes in recovery but after that they took her to the nursery and then since she was getting worse she was checked into the NICU.

I was unable to see her until the next day after I convinced them to unhook me a couple of hours earlier than they were supposed to. She spent the first 9 days of her life in the NICU.

This picture still makes me sad......Macy under the lights with an IV in her scalp. Every time we came in her IV was moved because she had ripped it out.

This picture won't mean anything to anyone but me. When I see it I remember exactly how I felt out the time. Conal had gone to my mom's to be with the older 4 kids and I went down to the NICU to talk to Macy's doctors about what course of action we were going to take at that point. Macy's lungs should have cleared but instead they were worse and because she was breathing so fast she couldn't eat and was losing weight. The doctors said that we needed to treat her aggressively or risk losing her. No mom ever wants to hear those words! I was really upset when I went back upstairs but I found this fruit bouquet (that my sister sent) and Conal there waiting for me. Both the arrival of the bouquet and Conal's arrival were perfect timing!


After 9 days we were so glad to take her home first to my moms and then next day to El Paso.

Now here we are a year later.

I had to add this one in so I remember how blonde her hair is. Actually this picture makes it look darker than it actually is:

A lot has happened in a year's time. We are glad that we've had Macy along for the ride!

Happy Birthday blonde girl!