The Engelbrecht Zoo

Cool giveaways

2009-06-09T10:43:00.001-06:00

I saw Give Away Today on Good Things Utah today. They have a ton of great giveaways. Check them out here.

PS I'll do some real posts soon.

Chaetun's Kindergarten Program

2009-05-16T23:30:00.002-06:00

Chaetun had his Kindergarten program this week. It was very cute and very well put together. It looked like his teach, Mrs. Kimber, may have had a lot to do with it as I watched her lead the kids. She did a GREAT job!! They sang lots of songs, many of them with sign language. I took one little section out because I thought it was so funny. I wish you could see the whole thing, but I'm sure you all don't want to sit around for the next half hour :)

Xadun's Birthday

2009-04-24T00:18:00.002-06:00

We let Xadun decide what he wanted to do for his birthday. He decided he wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese since there's now one near by (if you call Layton nearby to Willard). The boys loved it and didn't want to leave. Xadun had a great birthday. He was even so excited that he got the same gifts as his brother (just in different colors). I'm taking advantage of that now because I know as they get older they won't want anything like the other.

Chaetun's Birthday

2009-04-24T00:02:00.003-06:00

Chaetun turned 6 this year. He's getting so big! This is the first year we've had a friend party for him. He decided that he wanted to go bowling again for his birthday, so that's what we did. I think everyone had a lot of fun. A couple of the moms told me how excited the boys were when they got home because they got to go "real bowling". I decided to make the cake myself. I realize that the transformer isn't usually sky blue, but I kept trying to make the frosting darker, but it was late, and honestly, I didn't want to try anymore. Regardless, I was pretty proud of the cake considering I'm no Martha in the kitchen.

RSV strikes again

2009-03-26T23:09:00.004-06:00

We were almost out of this cold winter season that often brings respiratory illnesses to our home without much more than a cold. But, alas, we couldn't escape. I think all the boys had RSV, their bodies could just deal with it. Kilun's still young lungs couldn't fight it off as well. He started with a nasty cough and I knew it was more than just a cough. I watched him, knowing it would likely develop into wheezing. After 4 or 5 days the wheezing started. Luckily my doctor knows that I know the signs and was able to get me in right away. He got us a nebulizer and told me about the new RSV clinic they're doing this year. They haven't had this for any of the other boys, so it was new. It was really nice! I only took him twice, but it definitely made a difference. Had I known about it earlier in his illness, I'm sure I would have taken him more, but since he was already 4 or 5 days in, he seemed to be on the end of the illness. He's still got snot and a nasty cough, but it's not as bad. He's able to breathe through his nose and the wheezing is gone. I'm grateful for medical advances that can help us through these rough sick seasons!! We couldn't escape the RSV, but at least we were able to treat it pretty quickly!!

This cleaned out the stuff that was right in the nose. There was some powerful, constant sucking so it worked much better than the bulb sucker.

This was like a g-tube that they stuck a little further down into the sinuses to get the thicker stuff. The nurse and I commented that this is something they should send home with all new moms. It would be a lot easier than the bulb!

Getting a nebulizer treatment.

Chaetun & Xadun say...

2009-03-17T13:36:00.002-06:00

I've seen lots of people do this and wondered what the boys' responses would be, so we did it today.

Chaetun says...

1. What is something mom always says to you?
"Come read" or the first one "Don't hold Kilun" haha

2. What makes mom happy?
"When we clean up stuff."

3. What makes mom sad?
"When I don't want to be in this family anymore." He told me he wanted a new family once. I cried. It made an impact :)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
"I don't know"

5. What was your mom like as a child?
"having kids" ???

6. How old is your mom?
"29"

7. How tall is your mom?
raises his hand above his head

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
"Help people at the gym"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
"Calls me"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
"doing tricks"

11. What is your mom really good at?
"The drums on Rock Band"

12. What is your mom not very good at?
"Boxing" do you see a Wii trend?

13. What does your mom do for her job?
"The gym"

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
"Taco, when we go to Taco Del Mar"

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
"Helping me"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
"I don't know."

17. What do you and your mom do together?
"Play games"

18. How are you and your mom the same?
"Being white on our body" haha

19. How are you and your mom different?
"We have different hair. Yours is brown, mine is gray."

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
"Because you like me to do good things.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
"At a eating place"

22. What was your mom response to most of these questions?
"Some things"

Xadun says...

1. What is something mom always says to you?
"Don't touch your things"

2. What makes mom happy?
"Cleaning up"

3. What makes mom sad?
"Going to the police car at jail" not that I've ever done that haha

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
"I don't know"

5. What was your mom like as a child?
"?"

6. How old is your mom?
"31'

7. How tall is your mom?
raised his hand

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
"like to play with me"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
"be sad"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
shrug shoulders

11. What is your mom really good at?
"Boxing" Apparently he sees things differently than Chaetun

12. What is your mom not very good at?
"Breaking the stool"

13. What does your mom do for his job?
"nothing. Help people

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
"Burger"

15. What makes you proud of your Mom?
"I don't know"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
"Mad girl" lol

17. What do you and your mom do together?
"Play"

18. How are you and your mom the same?
"I look like you"

19. How are you and your mom different?
"Exercising" I'm not sure what that one means.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
"Because you like me to be here

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
"A eating place

22. What was your mom's response to most of these questions?
"Nothing"

Spaghetti & Gymnastics

2009-03-15T23:09:00.003-06:00

On Friday we made a family night of spaghetti and gymnastics. Chaetun got a form for 6 free tickets to the U of U womens gymnastics. Friday was their last home meet, and Chaetun really wanted to be able to go watch them. We took the boys to the Spaghetti Factory first. I think they all had fun with all the food. Unfortunately we took to long to eat so we missed the first half of the meet, vault and uneven bars. Chaetun was pretty upset by that. We promised that next season we'll come again and we'll eat after :) We wish there was some mens gymnastics around for him to watch, but he was just has happy to watch the girls. I was amazed at how full that events center was. It was just as full for gymnastics as it is for basketball. We had a lot of fun and it was good to do something planned as a family.

Children's Treehouse Museum

2009-03-15T23:00:00.003-06:00

Last month Xadun's preschool went on a field trip to the Children's Treehouse Museum in Ogden. This time I went with him since I figured Brekan would have a good time as well. This was the first time I have been there, but we should definitely go back. There was a lot for the kids to do and all of the kids had a great time. Here are some of the pictures I got with my phone. One of the other moms is a photographer, so I'll try to get some better ones from her. I'm also teaching Xadun's teacher how to blog this week, so maybe I'll link there later.

Other Miscellaneous Fun

2009-03-15T22:09:00.004-06:00

Last month we had the opportunity to go to the open house for the new Draper Temple. I wanted to get a picture of us in front of the temple, but you never really get to see the outside during the tour, so we just did one in the church after our refreshments. I think the boys really enjoyed going to the temple. Last weekend Chris' parents came home from Washington DC and brought each of the boys bears with the Capital building on it. They think it's a temple and call them the bears with the temple on it. lol

Daddy and Brekan

I came home from grocery shopping yesterday and asked where Brekan was. Chris went looking and found this.

Chaetun's wacky hair for Dr Seuss' Birthday.

Kilun Growing Up

2009-03-15T21:40:00.004-06:00

I know I've had other recent posts about Kilun, but he's just changing so much and it's such a fun age. On Valentine's Day my mom got all the boys a bouquet of balloons. Grandma was holding him and brought the balloons down for him. Kilun was loving them. All my boys LOVE balloons. It looks like it continues it down.

Playing in his toy box

Since becoming more interactive Kilun has really started to play more with his brothers. Obviously he can't run with them or anything, but he loves for them to come to him. He really loves Chaetun, though. Every time he sees Chaetun enter the room he makes happy noises. The funniest though is the laughing. No one can get Kilun to laugh like Chaetun. The love between the two is evident and so fun to watch. Here's a little video of it in action. I LOVE baby's first laughs.

Hip Hop Harry

2009-03-07T17:22:00.002-07:00

Has anyone heard of Hip Hop Harry? I never had until a couple of days ago. The boys found it on TV and we've watched it hundreds of times since. The only problem is that we've been watching the same one over and over. I'm going to go add it to their DVR so they can watch it on their own tv in the playroom. As you might conclude from the title, Harry is a hip hop dancer as are the kids who hang out with him. It's been pretty funny to watch the boys dance along with them. Hopefully I'll be able to get it on video soon.

Gymnastics

2009-02-07T12:48:00.002-07:00

We recently started Chaetun in gymnastics. So far he loves it. He takes at The Peak in Brigham. We chose it because it has all the apparatus' for a full gymnast, both boys and girls. There are about 4 or 5 classes all going at the same time, so they move around a lot. I think at this age, they are just trying to get them used to all the equipment. I hope by the fall, they will be a little bit more hands on in teaching them different things. For now, though, he loves it!

Last week was Parent Pride week and each of the kids got to bring a parent in to the class with them. We stretched with them and then helped them as they went to the different things. I didn't do any gymnastics myself, but I was able to take pictures, so here ya go...

St George

2009-02-07T12:17:00.004-07:00

Last weekend we took a little vacay and went down to St George. We met up with the Slaughters and Slaters since they had gone down to relax after Preston got home from his mission. It was a trip filled with a whole lot of nothing. I think the only exciting thing we did off of the condo resort was go to dinner one night with my friend Heather and her family and lunch at In-n-Out. Both were fun, though. Otherwise we spent time at the playground, the pool (I just sat on the side, it was still too cold to swim for me), and playing the Wii. We had a lot of fun haning out with the family! The boys loved playing with the girls and Rhett. We wished they lived closer. I made a slideshow of the few pictures I took (I think this is the first slide show I've ever made), and then, for your viewing entertainment, I have included a couple of videos of our Wii playing.

My Growing Baby

2009-01-23T11:06:00.002-07:00

My Kilun is growing up too fast and I don't like it at all. I want him to stay my baby forever. I love this stage!! He's such a good and happy baby. Unless he's tired or hungry, he's always smiling. I love how he loves his brothers. Sometimes they come in the room to talk to me and he will just start laughing at them. Chaetun is so good with him. If he's crying, he'll sit down and talk to him to get him to stop. Chaetun is pretty good at getting Kilun to laugh and does it often. Xadun & Brekan also love Kilun and love to love on him as often as they can. I also love how Kilun loves me. He's really my only child that has constantly been with me. I take him everywhere with me. With the other boys, I had to leave them with a babysitter fairly early on, but now that we own the gym, I get to take him with me. If Kilun is crying, I can pick him up and he'll stop. Conversely, he can be sitting with his dad and if he sees me or hears me come in the room he'll get fussy. I'm sure he's spoiled at this point, but I don't care. I want to take in every moment of this time. It makes me sad that this could be my last baby, so I want to make sure it lasts as long as it can!

Kilun has been hitting some milestones in the last month. He finally started taking a bottle. I only started to try to give him a bottle when he was 4-5 months old. At first he wanted nothing to do with it. I bought a couple of different bottles, but he wouldn't have any of it. I decided to try a different type of formula. When I went to the store I was looking for one without iron in it because I know that must make it taste nasty. It definitely makes it smell nasty! Since all formulas have iron, I setteled on a soy. It worked! He still nurses 90% of the time, but I give him a bottle or two daily. I also finally started him on cereal (I put it off trying to make this time last longer.) He loves cereal and I know we'll have to start baby food soon.

From Growing Kilun

This week he has also been a rolling machine. I can't put him on his back without him rolling over to his belly. It's fun to watch, but he gets so flustered that he doesn't know how to get back to his back. He CAN turn on his back, he has done it since he was 2 or 3 months old, but now he has to remember how to do it. This just means he will be rolling all over and then crawling all too soon :(

From Growing Kilun

Kilun got a bumbo for Christmas. While it's nice for me to be able to put him in whe I need to get something done, it's not really his favorite place. He likes to arch his back to try to get out of it. Just today he fell out twice while I was trying to clean up the kitchen :s Really, a lot of it is just that spoiled thing, and he just wants to be held. He doesn't like to lay down too much anymore and is really working on those stomach muscles to sit himself up. I don't think it will be too long until he can sit up on his own. Another :(

From Growing Kilun

Sorry about the red eye

From Growing Kilun

Just another cute one.

Merry Christmas!

2009-01-23T10:58:00.001-07:00

This year at for Christmas we had my mom and grandparents here (of course) and then Chris' parents and brother and his daughter came. We had a house full! The boys loved all of their gifts, especially the Wii.

Family Christmas Party

2009-01-22T22:47:00.006-07:00

We had the Family Christmas Party at our church this year. We were very glad it was at ours because there ended up being a huge storm that day, causing a big accident on the freeway. The freeway was shut down causing all those people to be on Hwy 89. It took people 2 hours to get from Willard to Brigham, normally a 15 minute drive. We were happy to just drive across the street!Grandma & Grandpa eating soup with the Wellings and some Nicholas'

The kids got to play take their turn at the pinata

We played the reindeer balloon game. It was pretty funny.
The results
Brekan Reindeer
Chaetun got these head and wrist bands in his White Elephant present. Luckily there were three set so all the boys got them. They loved them as well as the Christmas picture frame with a picture of Grace and Jim in it. They even put the frame up (with the picture of Grace and Jim) in their room on their desk. Nothing is a white elephant to them! They love junk!

*UPDATE*
Here's their picture frame with Grace & Jim's picture proudly displayed on their desk.

Temple Square

2009-01-22T22:30:00.004-07:00

I guess we'll start back in December. This year I really wanted to take the boys down to see the lights on Temple Square because they haven't been down before. I know, I know,I'm a bad mom living in Utah and not taking my kids to Temple Square before. The last time I had been down to see the lights was when Chris proposed. It was crazy busy and we had Grandpa with us, so we didn't really get to wander as much as I would have liked, but we'll go back down at a less busy time and walk around. We rode the front runner down (that was really why Grandpa wanted to go).

The boys really loved looking at the Christus. I don't know what was up with Chaetun and his gangsta pose. We didn't realize he had done that until we downloaded the pictures. When we got back to the main trax station, we realized that we had to wait for about an hour for the train to get there. We tried to stay warm on the benches.

When we got back to the main trax station, we realized that we had to wait for about an hour for the train to get there. We tried to stay warm on the benches. (Sorry I don't know why I'm underlined and don't know how to get it off.)

Slacker

2009-01-21T23:42:00.002-07:00

I know I've been such a slacker. There has been so much to post about in the last couple of months, but I just haven't had the motivation to do any of it. I still want to post about a lot of it thought, so in the next couple of days I hope to get a few new blogs done. Then I'll try to do it more regularly. I hope. At least I have a new cute background and header. It's a start.

Race for Amber

2008-11-02T23:25:00.004-07:00

A couple of weeks ago another Anytime Fitness owner, Trent Lindstrom, told us of an event he was sponsoring up here in Perry (Trent owns the Brigham location). Amber Chase lives in Perry and has been fighting Inflammatory Breast Cancer for 18 months. You can check out her story here. The community came together and planned a "Race for Amber" 5k to help raise money for her family. Trent asked if we would donate the Running Man suit (we usually rent it out) and if Chris would wear it for the event. We of course agreed. Chris is a great Running Man. He works the crowd and everyone loves him. We got there just as the race was starting. He mingled through the crowd before the 5k started and then we decided to walk the 1 mile they were also doing. He was then in charge of high-fiving the kids as they were finishing the various races. Even though we didn't do much, it was nice to be able to participate is such a great cause!

"On your mark, get set, go!"
Running with the crowd
The kids loved him!
Giving one of the prizes for the most pink.
Captain Running Man, Amber Chase, & Trent Lindstrom

Halloween

2008-11-02T22:47:00.003-07:00

On Halloween we finally went to the Pumpkin Patch. I was just going to let it go, but the day before, Chaetun started to talk about it, so since Chris and my mom were supposed to have the day off, I figured we could go. We went to Black Island Farms in Syracuse and they have so much there! The boys had so much fun on the slides and playing on all that they have there. After they played for awhile we took our hayride to get our pumpkins. Our driver on the way to get pumpkins told us that the farm is small, as farms go, and so in order to make what they need, they've gone into the agritainment business. We thought that was funny and he said he was hoping they would put it in the dictionary next year (I will note, though, that when I type it, it doesn't come back as a misspelled word - maybe it is real). Being Halloween, the pumpkins were pretty picked through, but we were able to still find some good ones.

I didn't have my camera that night when we went trunk-or-treating so I'll update when I get those pictures off my mom's camera.)

Wisconsin

2008-11-02T22:25:00.005-07:00

About a month ago (yeah, I know I'm a little behind) we went to Wisconsin for the annual Anytime Fitness Conference. It was a good trip and we had a good time. Kevin and Emily Ford are our new partners in this adventure and were also there. It was fun to spend more time with them. We started out with a horrible hotel experience (think Twilight Zone/Bates Motel) we complained and were able to get in brand new building (though our condo hadn't been cleaned for over a month) and pay the same, actually less, than if we had stayed in the scary room.

Kilun, keeping with tradition, had his first plane ride early.
Kevin looking drunk drinking a "beer". It was actually root beer that Anytime had labeled as their own. We all looked like we were drinking all weekend long. Most people actually were.
Chris "drinking"
Trying out the new recumbent Expresso bike
Chris working out the abs
The four of us in the beautiful fall scenery.

Voting

2008-10-29T10:13:00.002-06:00

Yesterday my mom and I decided to go and vote early. I told the kids to get their shoes and socks on and they, of course, wanted to know where we were going. This is the conversation:

Chaetun & Xadun: Where are we going?
Me: We're going voting.
Xadun: (excitedly) We're going bowling?!?!
Me: No, we're going to vote.
Chaetun: Ooohhh, we're going on a boat.
Me: No. V-Vote. I'm going to vote.
Chaetun: What's vote?
Me: It's like when I ask you what you want to eat, mac & cheese or sandwiches. Which ever more people want wins.

Photo Shoot

2008-10-20T13:46:00.004-06:00

Here are the results of our recent family photo shoot. I think they turned out pretty cute considering I have four little boys who were very distractable. Katie found this cool place in Salt Lake, The Exchange Place. We weren't able to get any good pics that showed the coolness, but I hope to get down there again sometime when we have more time and light.

Chaetun, very GQ

Xadun

Brekan

Kilun in his blessing outfit

The Lights of my Life

Grandma and the boys

On a much more humorous note....

2008-10-07T18:22:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, when Chaetun got home from school, he immediately headed from his room and told me I couldn't come in. Well, obviously I knew something was up. I asked him why. He lifted up his shirt and this is what I saw. Right away all I wanted to do was laugh and take a picture. I turned around to go to my room to get my phone to take a picture. Chaetun, started screaming in hysterics telling me not to tell. This just made it more funny. He said, "Are you going to make me call Grandma?" Apparently my MIL left this pair of women's underwear on her last visit here and Chaetun found them. Unbeknownst to me, he put these on BEFORE he went to school and had them on all day (it's only 3 hours, but that looks like a really uncomfortable 3 hours). I had no idea because he put his sweat shirt on overtop and I couldn't see anything. I asked if he showed anyone at school and he said no. I didn't receive a phone call from the school, so I'm pretty sure no adults saw. The funniest part was how mortified he was. Everytime I reached for my phone he thought I was going to tell. He DID NOT want me to tell. I so wanted to call Chris, but I figured I'd wait until we were in the car and he was hopefully distracted by the movie. I called Chris, and Chaetun heard me talking to him and the hysterics started all over again. He screamed and sobbed. I never got mad at him. I thought it was hilarious. I think his own personal embarassment was enough punishment. I had sent the picture to Chris and he couldn't figure out what it was. When I told him he laughed so hard. Later Chris showed my mom the pictures and Chaetun again broke down. So, no one tell him you saw it here, but I couldn't resist :)

Kilun's Blessing

2008-10-07T18:10:00.002-06:00

I want to get this on here before I forget about this wonderful day. It WAS a great day for Kilun's blessing! We a had a lot of support from our wonderful friends and family, as we always do. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera out, so I don't have any pictures of everyone here :( So, for my own record...

Kilun was blessed by his dad, and with him in the circle was Great Grandpa, Uncle Boyd, Uncle Mark, Uncle Floyd, Uncle John, Austin, Kevin Ford, Kevin Varble, Trevor Zezula, Mike Crouch, and Bishop Nelson. Also in attendance at the meeting were Ryan & Shawnee Hoffmann, Jake and Suzi Baxter, and Melanie Slater and her girls (Nate was working). Chris did a great job in the blessing, as he always does.

As we were sitting in Fast & Testimony Meeting, we, in the back row, had a very spiritual experience. I wouldn't normally post it here, but I want to remember it, and right now, this is the place I put those things. As I sat there with Kilun, he was so smiley; more smiley than is had ever been. He just kept looking up and smiling, not at me, but something, or someone else. At the time, I felt strongly that his Grandpa Gene was there and that's who he was smiling at. As I later thought about this, it occured to me that this shouldn't be so surprising to me. He knows his Grandpa very well. I'm sure that's who he was with before he came to this earth. The veil is still very thin for Brekan and I am convinced that he sees his Grandpa all the time. It is a comfort to Kilun to see his Grandpa who he just recently left. That, by itself, was a great thing for me to realize during that meeting. But, a few minutes later, I looked down the row and saw that my mom was crying. I didn't know why. Chris then told me that my uncle, who was also sitting on our row, had looked over and saw my dad next to me. He was there. I already knew he was there, but to have someone else know he was there was a great thing for me. I have also wondered if my dad is around me, if he watches me, and mostly I just don't know. But that day, I knew he was with my son, and he was with me too.

No Words

2008-09-25T09:04:00.002-06:00

It's times like these that make me so grateful for the relationships my boys are formig with their Great-Grandma and Grandpa. (I'm also playing with photoshop so you get two different versions)

Kilun's Blessing

2008-09-24T13:14:00.004-06:00

We are blessing Kilun this Sunday. I wanted to invite all our friends and family that are local (or distant if you want) to come. Our church is at 9am with Sacrament Meeting first. Give me a call or email me if you need directions. We'd love to see everyone!

Happy Birthday Brekan!

2008-09-24T11:11:00.006-06:00

Brekan had birthday September 11th. He's 2. Wow, do we ever know it. The "2s" have come on pretty strong and I have my work cut out for me for the next year or two. We had a pretty low key birthday party, as we do much of the time. Chris cut out of work a little early and we met for dinner at Javier's. They were really nice and brought out some fried ice cream and sang happy birthday in Spanish. He thought that was pretty cool. When we got home Brekan got to talk to Grandma Nancy on Skype since she was in Khasakstan. Then he got to open presents. Chaetun was so excited to help him open his presents. lol I think it was a good day for him.

First Day of School

2008-09-24T10:17:00.008-06:00

This year both Chaetun and Xadun started new schools.

Chaetun started kindergarten, which he was so excited for. Everything had been based around the baby, so the kids knew that after the baby was born, they would go to school. Chaetun has loved school from day one.

I was going to get him on the bus the first day (he loves the bus), but after waiting for it to come for 10 minutes, I got worried and wondered if we had missed it. I didn't want him to be late for the first day of school, so we came home and I drove him to school. I was going to meet him at the school anyway, so it worked out ok. (Turns out the bus was just REALLY late and was just picking the kids up at the time I was getting home from taking Chaetun to school.) He goes to Willard Elementary. The school is a little different as it is only Kindergarten and 1st grade. I like that. No big kids to worry about. The next school is 2nd-5th grade. It's odd, but for kindergarten, I kind of like it. Chaetun's teacher this year is Mrs. Kimber. I've heard she's one of the best in the school. So far I have no complaints. She has a good discipline and reward system that I would even like to adopt for home. The kids learned her rules daily and now Chaetun can recite them word for word. That doesn't mean he follows them, though :S Chaetun is a great kid, just a little social. So there's been a few times that he's had to "pull a yellow card" because he was talking or didn't listen the first time he was asked. He is getting better, though. Luckily, he's very honest boy, so when that happens, it's always the first thing he tells me.

We're working on reading, and though he usually doesn't like it, he's getting better and it isn't such a fight. I've learned how to make it less stressful for him, so I hope that he will soon enjoy reading. He loves when the bookmobile comes to school and he can get a new book, and they go to the library every Friday. So, he loves the books, just not reading them. Hopefully we'll change that soon.

Xadun also started school this year - preschool. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to be able to find one, but I HAD to because he knew he would start school after the baby came. I had tried to get him into a bigger preschool, but they were all full. I put my name on a waiting list, but didn't hear anything and school was getting ready to start. My mom went visiting teaching and found out a lady in our ward does a preschool. We talked to her on Sunday and she had an opening so I was able to get him in. I was a little weary of a home preschool, not sure it would really teach him like Chaetun's taught, but I have been very impressed. She has finished her basement with the preschool in mind, so they even have their own little classroom. She is so organized, so I know what's going on everyday he's there. They even go on field trips. The first one is tomorrow and Xadun is so excited. Chaetun's a little upset :) Xadun LOVES school and looks forward to every Tuesday & Thursday!

Behind in Blogging

2008-09-24T10:16:00.001-06:00

As much as I want to keep up with my blogging, I'm not really good at it. There have been some big events in the last month that deserve some blogging, so stay tuned for a lot of blogging today.

Kilun

2008-09-02T16:59:00.004-06:00

Hopefully, since it's taken me a while to post, you've all figured out that Kilun DID come home. He came home Saturday, Aug 9, 10 days after being born. I don't know what it is about 10 days, but that's seems to be the right length of time for our boys to be in the NICU. All three of them have been there the same time. Anyway, he's home and all is well. The boys were all sick when he came home and despite our efforts to keep them away from Kilun, he did catch something and has been a little stuffed up, but nothing too bad. All the boys love Kilun and have been really good with him. Mom and dad love him too and we're happy to have another little one in our home.

Here are a few pictures my cousin, Katie, took of Kilun. They are so cute!

From Kilun

From Kilun2

Great to even better!

2008-08-07T13:25:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was a really good day here in the NICU. After getting that darn chest tube out, Kilun has been going up hill. His oxygen sats have been really good, so they took him off the high flow nasal canula and put him on just the normal one. He continued to do so well with that, that this morning they did a room air trial and he is now off oxygen completely.

Since the tube was out and then we got off the high-flow, we were able to start breast-feeding (not a dumb questions, Janna!). Kilun has done really well with that. I think a lot of it has to do with his age and he really IS ready to breast feed. He has to have everything by mouth (rather than the feeding tube) for 48 hours before we can go home. We hope that will be by Saturday.

Another benefit of being off the high-flow was that he could now be in a "big boy bed" and get dressed.

The one IV he had left went bad with 3 doses of antibiotic to go. I had asked the nurse about the possibility of giving it orally. She said these specific antibiotics don't have an oral version, but there was a possibility of a shot. I told her about the problems he's had with IVs and thought it might be a better idea with only 3 doses left to do it with a shot. When I came back after shift change the nurse was just trying to do another IV. I again told her about his history and asked about the possibility of the shots. She checked with the NNP and it was decided just to discontinue them all together. We'll take that!! Since there has really been no sign of infection from the beginning, there was no reason to have to stick him several more times just for 3 doses.

So, now all we're waiting for is the eating. I don't think it'll be a problem and we'll look forward to going home this weekend! We did have to go back on the bili-lights, but hey, better to get that taken care of here than home!

It's gone!!

2008-08-06T11:06:00.002-06:00

Before
After

I came in this morning to find the nurse scrubbing the floor where the tape had been holding the water seal mechanism controlling the chest tube. Which means...the chest tube is gone!!!!! I am so excited! Last night before I left I had talked to the night NNP and told her my concerns. At the time Kilun had gone up on his oxygen and his breathing was a little fast. At that point the NNP said she wouldn't even talk to a doctor because he was still having some small concerns. It wasn't long after that, though, that he calmed right down, his oxygen needs went back down and he was breathing at a normal rate. They must have checked him earlier than they otherwise would have because they removed the tube at 1 this morning, not waiting until 4 to have another x-ray. His oxygen has been turned down again, and continues to do well, so I think it won't be long before he just goes to a regular canula instead of the high flow.

Thanks for the crossed limbs and the extra prayers. We have have been truly blessed by them.

Days 4 & 5

2008-08-05T20:34:00.002-06:00

I've been waiting for some big news to post about before I did another update, but it doesn't seem like it's coming. Things with Kilun are good. He's been improving the last couple of days. Yesterday they continued to up his feeds of my milk, thus decreasing the other fluids they have been giving him. He has tolerated it well and has been able to keep up the digestion with the amount they are giving him. Unfortunately, my milk is not keeping up. I'm trying hard to keep on the pumping schedule, but it's not bringing anything in. I know I should really just give it a few days...I AM only 5 days post baby and it takes a few for the milk to come in. It's just frustrating when the amount they want to give him is twice as much as I make. The fact that he is going down on his fluids, though, is good news because the poor kid can not keep an IV to save his soul. He has been getting 2 a day because they just keep going bad. At this point they could probably take them all out, but he has 2 more days of antibiotics so he needs an IV for those. Tonight I stood by his bedside while they poked him 7 times trying to get a good IV. 6 of them blew, one is still working. My guess is, though, by tomorrow evening, it will no longer be good.

Today he came off the bili lights. He was having a hard time getting rid of the bili because he wasn't pooping. The pain med he was getting for the chest tube was slowing his bowels, so he hadn't pooped for 4 days. They were able to slow down the pain meds and sedation yesterday, only giving it twice, so his bowels have been moving again. He's probably pooped 7 or 8 times today and we cheer every time he does. It seems every thing is looking good except one...

The biggest thing I've been waiting for his getting his chest tube out. I'm starting to get very frustrated, and I'm sure Kilun is too. We were hoping that the tube would come out yesterday morning, but when I got here they said they saw a little sliver of air on the chest x-ray again, so just to be safe, they were going to leave it all day and do another x-ray this morning. They did another x-ray this morning, I wasn't told what they saw on it, but during rounds they decided to turn off the suction and do another x-ray at 6 tonight. The x-ray was done and the NNP (neonatal nurse practitioner) said it looked good and to keep in on water seal, which means keep it off but we're not taking it out. I was very frustrated by this because the DR this morning said that if it was good we'd take it out tonight, but then the NNP said not to. Our nurse today was great and I let her know my frustration. I'm hoping to be able to talk more to the nurse tonight and maybe get another opinion from the night NNP and get it out. As long as he has the chest tube in he can't be held, so I haven't been able to hold my baby for 4 days now. That's forever!! Since he hasn't been on so much sedation the last couple of days, Kilun has started waking up more and the poor guy just wants to be held. He can't really be moved because of the tube and has pretty much been in the same position since Saturday. He been starting to root, but of course I can't nurse him, again, due to the tube.

Aside from the tube, everything looks great. So, everyone cross your fingers, toes, legs, and anything else that can be crossed, and pray, that we can get this tube out in hours, not days.

Day 3

2008-08-03T14:41:00.002-06:00

We had a great surprise when we arrived at the hospital today. Kilun was off the respirator. Yay!! He now has a high flow cannula, I think. His numbers all look a lot better today than they did yesterday and he is holding his own. They just checked his blood gases and I think by the nurses talking, they didn't come back so well. He was working a little harder to breathe and was holding his breath a little. While they were all deciding what to do I tried to hold his little arms from flailing everywhere and tucked him back into to the little kangaroo thing they have in his bed. It seemed to help him calm down a little. We think, perhaps, his chest tube is bothering him and he could just use a little more pain meds. that's what the nurse is going to try first and hopefully that will make the difference.

I was reminded today how blessed we are that even thought Kilun is in the NICU, he in America and he's getting great care. My aunt and uncle, Anne & Roy, are on a humanitarian mission in Kazakhstan. The last couple of weeks they have been doing Newborn Resuscitation Training for several doctors and nurses over there. You can read their blog here. It's amazing for me to think about all the doctors and nurses in other countries who don't know how to do those things that we think are the simplest things, like intubating a baby. (obviously not us non-doctors, but you know what I mean) Kilun may not have lived had he been born in one of these countries because they don't have all the knowledge and technology that we do here. I am very grateful for that blessing today. At least we have a NICU to be treated in and I know we will go home in a few days.

I want to thank you for all the prayers and the fasting that has been offered in our behalf. I know there has been a lot. Heavenly Father is blessing Kilun to be strong and overcome his challenges and our family is being blessed as well.

Update #2

2008-08-02T15:12:00.002-06:00

When we went to see Kilun earlier they had just inserted the needle to extract the air from the pneumothorax, they got quite a bit out and as time went on they continued to get air out. When this happened with Xadun, it was a one time thing that they took the air out and the needle was out. This time they left the catheter in the chest and continued to get air out. This was concerning because if they continued to get air out, it meant that the hole wasn't closing itself and they might have to put a chest tube in. Before we left for lunch it was finally looking better and they were no longer to air out. This all happened before they did the surfactant. They were waiting to do the surfactant because the lungs react quite quickly to it and it might cause additional leaking and want to get the one taken care of first, hoping if that one was fixed, the surfactant might not cause any other problems. (sorry, run on sentence) While we were at lunch they administered the surfactant and when we got back he had again gone backwards, was on 100% oxygen and was breathing quite rapidly. They were getting ready to put in the chest tube. The nurse practitioner showed us how they were able to see the air in the lung and why they wanted to put the chest tube in immediately instead of waiting to get another xray first. So, they kicked us out and they are doing a little surgery to put the chest tube in. This is new territory for us. None of the boys have had to have chest tubes. We were also told that Kilun has officially bought himself a 7 day course of antibiotics due to all the problems. Initially they start out with 3 days of antibiotics and then go from there depending on how they do. So, we will be here at least 7 days, probably more. And last, but not least, he's looking a little jaundice, so he's also on phototherapy to get that taken care of.

Thank you for all the prayers and support! I am definitely feeling stronger as we deal with all the issues we didn't anticipate having. Little Kilun needs all the help he can get, both from the nurses and doctors here, but most importantly from his Father in Heaven.

Update

2008-08-02T08:34:00.003-06:00

I just received a call from the NICU that our little Kilun has taken a few steps backwards instead of forward like we had hoped. On this morning's x-rays they found that he has a pneumo-thorax, which means there's a little hole in his lungs and the air is leaking out into the tissue around them. They also found that the lack of surfactant is becoming an issue. Surfactant is a substance that our bodies naturally produce that helps our lungs to stay open and not stick together. With Kilun's lack, his little air sacks are sticking together. So, he's having to breathe faster and harder to get the oxygen that he needs.

They're going in this morning to do the procedure for all this. He will have to be intubated so he'll be on a breathing tube for most of the day, but hopefully we'll be able to get it out by tomorrow morning.

We could really use some extra prayers throughout the day. We've been through all of this before with Xadun, but we weren't prepared to go through it this time. If this had been 2 weeks ago I probably would have been able to handle it a little better. I'll try to post some pictures later.

**If anyone local has a breast pump that they'd let me borrow for a few weeks, it would be greatly appreciated**

Another stay in the NICU

2008-08-01T17:52:00.002-06:00

Despite being a full term baby, we have again been admitted to the NICU. They did a chest x-ray last night and it looked "streaky", meaning he doesn't have the amount of surfactant he needs in his lungs. They put him on a C-PAP last night and to help keep the lungs open. His respirations are a little high and he's working more than he should for his air. He'll probably ween himself off the C-PAP, hopefully in just a couple of days. Then we have to figure out the eating thing, etc, etc. So we're looking at another week at least. This is just so unexpected. I though for sure we'd be able to take him home seeing as how this was my longest pregnancy, biggest baby, etc. It's very frustrating, to say the least. Even more frustrating is that because I thought we wouldn't have any problems, I delivered down in Murray at the new IMC. This is an hour away from home. If we were going to do a NICU stay we had planned on delivering at McKay so that I'd be closer to home.

I also have had a couple of complications that have made my recovery a little harder. Last night I hemorrhaged and lost quite a bit of blood. I had been feeling fine up until that point, but spent the next 12 hours flat on my back and unable to get up. They gave me 3 different types of pitocin to help my uterus cramp down, get back to it's normal size and stop bleeding. Along with that came lots of fluids, so today I look like I've gained 20 pounds. They just took the catheter out that I was on for almost 24 hours.

Chris has been great to me! He's really taken care of me and has been strong when I have really struggled. There's been a couple times when things were really bad, that I really didn't know because everyone else was so calm. They called a code blue on Kilun yesterday soon after he was born because he stopped breathing, turned blue and limp. I had no idea until after everything was fine again. Then when I hemorrhaged last night I didn't realize how big of a deal it was until my room was filled with nurses and the resident trying to get the bleeding taken care of. Through all of it Chris just held my hand and was there. He's been so sweet to open my butter when I haven't had any strength, change my gown, and even tried to change my sheets before a CNA stopped him. He did have to tell me "I told you so" today in regards to being in the NICU and we should have gone to McKay. haha I have to give him that one.

He's Here!!

2008-07-31T19:33:00.002-06:00

Since I'm sitting here with nothing else to do, I thought I'd put a couple of the first pictures up of Kilun. Kilun Nicholas Engelbrecht was born July 31, at 5:17 pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 13 oz, 20 1/2 in.

Labor was uneventful. I had a doctors appointment this afternoon and I had progressed from last week, so she sent me over to the hospital. I got here shortly after 1 and he came at 5, so it was pretty quick. All it took was the doctor breaking my water.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that I was past 37 weeks and considered full-term, I still don't have him here with me. He was doing great when he was born and then they think that he "inhaled a lugee" or something. So, they took him down to "transition" which is where they watch babies to decide whether or not they need to be admitted to the NICU. Please pray that little Kilun will not have to make a NICU stay. We want so much to take him home (don't mind my previous post about liking the NICU, I lied :) ) Chris went down to check on the status about a half hour ago but they were in the middle of shift change so he couldn't go in. I'll post an update when I hear one.

36+ Weeks

2008-07-24T12:05:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I officially hit 36 weeks along in this pregnancy. Hopefully that means that we no longer have to worry about being in the NICU and this will be a take home baby. I'm both excited and nervous about this. On the one hand, it was kind of nice being in the NICU for a few days to get to know my babies. Their stats were monitored and I had a lactation specialist available at all times. We didn't go home before we knew the baby could eat and breathe. It was all just a little more safe. On the other hand, it's so hard to have kids at home that I have leave every day while I spend all day at the hospital, not to mention stressful and sometimes lonely since Chris didn't spend much time there. If we can just make sure the baby can eat before we leave, before we even leave the labor room, actually, all would be great! So, for every day this little one continues to cook the better off those lungs are and the better off we'll be-as long as he comes in July.

All About the Blue

2008-07-15T22:35:00.002-06:00

About a week and a half ago my mom took me to get a pedicure. With the upcoming events, I decided to go with blue. Yesterday I got my nails done, and again, we went with blue. I got my hair cut on Friday (don't worry, nothing blue there) so I think we're ready for this baby boy to join our family now. I guess since all the nails are painted blue, I should put my hospital bag together. Eh, just one more minor detail.

I'm 35 weeks tomorrow and it's in this week that both Xadun & Brekan were born. So now, we just wait.

May...Better Late than Never

2008-07-08T12:35:00.001-06:00

Baby Update

2008-07-01T10:21:00.002-06:00

The number of weeks left keeps getting lower and lower. As per the numbers on ultrasound yesterday, I'm 32 weeks and 6 days, which means for my body, I've only got a couple of weeks left. The appointment yesterday was with the perinatologist who is over the research study I'm a part of this time around. I've been a couple of times in the last couple of weeks to do an official measurement of the cervix. They've been looking at a couple of things. First, to see if I have any other issue that might cause the early labors like an infection or something. Second, they are trying to figure out how early I will go and if I will need steroids. At both appointments where the cervix was measured, all measurements were within normal limits and nothing to get too excited about. So, yesterday, the dr said that at this point, it doesn't look like there is a need for steroids unless something happens between now and 35 weeks, like my water breaks or I start having contractions. I asked about the steroids and what it is that they actually do. The doctor gave me a great explanation that helps me understand why we may not need them this time and why they didn't work with Brekan. Anyway, from my OB, when I saw her a week and a half ago I was only dilated to a one, so no big deal. I go back on Monday and we'll see what happens from there.

Yesterday before they measured the cervix they gave me a full ultrasound just to check on the size of the baby. Everything looked great! He's measuring about 4 lbs 10 oz, so he should be right in line with what the other boys were. I was able to get some 3D photos of this one. This is the first time I've ever had 3D pictures of my babies. It was pretty cool. So, here is a preview of the little one that will be here in a couple of weeks.

You What?????

2008-06-25T08:47:00.002-06:00

I plan to go back and hopefully cover the last couple of months few activities, but I had to get this one out now. I hadn't even thought of the blog until he brought it up, so I figured while the kids continue to sit in time out, I would hurry and tell you about the life of having boys.

I was laying in bed, still mostly asleep when I heard Xadun, in a fairly close area of the house talking to Chaetun, telling him, "Just a minute, I have to pull up my pants." I was confused by this statement as it sounded like he was in the kitchen. I got up and went to ask why his pants were down. Xadun in all his innocence said, "Cuz we peed in a cup." I immediately turned to Chaetun to verify this story. When he's in trouble he lies, but all you have to do is question a couple of times and he tells the truth. Xadun will lie to the end even when it's an obvious one (ie, when I tell him to go upstairs to play and he'll continually tell me he is when he is very clearly in my room). Anyway, Chaetun verified the story. Yes, they peed in a cup. Like, the glass ones everyone drinks out of, and in the middle of the kitchen. So, they are currently sitting in corners for a 30 minute time out, will not watch the tv today and no bikes, 'cuz that's the real love right now.

I called Chris to tell him what his children had done and he just laughed. Laughed. I did not find this situation funny at all. I suppose being the boy he is, he just remembered back to his childhood and that at some point he had probably done it to. I pointed out that yes, maybe you peed in a cup outside, but not in your kitchen in a glass cup everyone uses, 10 yards from the bathroom in a house with 6 bathrooms, just because you needed to go potty (sorry for the run on sentence). I might be able to understand a little more if it was an outside thing. I should have reminded him of the time just a few weeks ago he caught Chaetun pooping outside (saying he wanted to kill the weeds) and was quite upset about it. I guess it's the one who's home to find the act is the one that gets the most upset while the one on the phone just laughs about it.

I often get confused at why Heavenly Father would send me 4 boys that I have no idea what to do with. This would never in a million years have crossed my mind. Chris just warned me that they will try to pee where ever they can, just to see that they can. Great! I look forward to the time they try to pee off the deck and it just drips down only to find the head of someone sitting on the patio down below :S This is so out of my realm of knowledge!!!

Potty Update

2008-05-05T09:29:00.002-06:00

I know no one cares as much as a parent about potty training, but I'm going to give you all an update anyway (and the fact that all this can be printed for later recall is a good reason, too). I would like to report that Xadun's potty training has been a success. I haven't had to clean poopy underwear in a while. I guess when we let it be his decision, he made the right one. He still wears pull-ups when he sleeps, but I don't think he'll have to for very long. He generally wakes up dry, even though he drinks water all night long. The other night he came in and told me he needed to change his pull up because he peed in it. I think that's a good sign - at least he knows when he's gone in the middle of the night and hopefully soon he'll wake up before it gets to that point. It was a longer process than Chaetun's, but it still wasn't too bad.

Family Fun

2008-04-29T00:17:00.000-06:00

Birthdays

2008-04-22T22:39:00.006-06:00

This month we celebrated Chaetun & Xadun's birthdays. Chaetun turned 5 and Xadun turned 3. Because their birthdays are only 5 days apart, at this point in their lives we just celebrate them together. They both got presents ON their birthday and then the Saturday in between the two days we went bowling and had ice cream cake.

As you can see, the boys didn't do too bad for their first time bowling (of course there were bumpers). You can also see that I, the one who had a bowling class in college, sucked! :) My excuse is that I have to warm up. Since we only played one game, I didn't get adequate time to get that warm up. I probably would have done better by the third game. You can see in the present pictures, they loved the game so much, Xadun got his own bowling for the house.

(I've been wanting to make this post for quite some time now, but I needed to make collages and didn't know how. I figured it out today, as you can see.)

New Layout

2008-04-22T22:09:00.002-06:00

As you can see, I have finally moved on with my layout and have figured how to make it cute. I finally found a site (Thanks, Janna!) and took the time to read the directions to figure out how to do it. I wanted it to be along the same lines as our zoo (in case you hadn't figured that out) and I was able to find some really cute paper. Of course, as I went along I also had to use Photo Shop which I had no idea how to do either. I found some great directions that gave me a start and I was able to start figuring some stuff out. It's kind of fun once you know what you're doing!! That could be bad, though, because now the whole digital scrapbooking thing looks a lot more fun :S

UPDATE - Potty Training

2008-04-01T22:42:00.002-06:00

Xadun had a really good day today. The potty training has been off and on since my last post due to me going to work, Friday, Saturday, and Monday, and I wasn't about to worry about it during church. So, today was the first all day since last Thursday. As I said, Xadun had a really good day and at one point, he even noticed that he needed to go and said he'd better go potty so he doesn't go in his underwear. I was very happy to hear that. As the day went on, I was thinking about being able to blog about such a great feat, but of course, it was too early. Close to bed time my mom brought Xadun up and I knew there must have been an accident, but it wasn't just pee, he pooped in his underwear. I didn't get upset and just talked to him about going in the toilet. He was really sad and kept telling me he was sorry he went poop in his underwear. He really was. And as we talked, he kept saying that next time he'll go in the toilet. I'm hoping that his slightly abnormal digestive system won't cause too many of these no time to run to the toilet type accidents. My mom said they were just playing downstairs when all of the sudden he stopped, and it had happened. I'm still calling it a good day, though. We're definitely making progress!

Oh, the Joy of Potty Training

2008-03-26T22:24:00.002-06:00

We've been trying to get Xadun to go potty in the toilet for awhile now. Yesterday Chaetun was trying to convince him that he should do it. So, I told Xadun that we could go pick out some underwear if he would go potty in the toilet. He was very excited about the idea and seemed to understand, so today we went and got underwear. Thomas the Train and Football to be exact. We also got Cars that were too big so we gave those to Chaetun. More on that later.

The underwear didn't go on until after naps, around 5. In the next 4 hours of his awake time, I cleaned up two puddles on the floor (thank goodness for hardwood floors) and put three pair of wet underwear in the dirty clothes. I stayed on top of him asking if he needed to go potty, but he never answered yes, and always peed on the floor :s I'm not sure if he just doesn't understand the feeling yet, or he just doesn't pay attention to it. We'll try again tomorrow since we'll be home all day. I only have 6 pair of underwear, so we might be done halfway through the day.

The other part of this story is Chaetun. He was excited for Xadun to get underwear and understood that he wasn't getting any. When we got home and I found that the Cars were too big for Xadun, I told Chaetun he could have them. Of course it wasn't enough just to have them, he had to wear them. I told him he could not change his underwear just to wear cars. He would have to wait until tomorrow. So, he proceeds to pee in them a little so that they're wet and he can take them off. I told him he would have to live with wet underwear because he knows better. He then peed a little more so as to make his pants wet wanting to change everything. Again, being the mean mom that I am, I told him he had to keep the wet underwear and pants and he would not be allowed to change. I know, I'm mean, but I'm not going to let him change his underwear just because he got new ones. :P

Easter Fun

2008-03-26T22:04:00.002-06:00

We had a good Easter this year. It wasn't too eventful, but still fun for the kids. Saturday morning we went to an Easter Egg Hunt. It was one of those in a bigger city where everyone goes at once, no splitting up the age groups. So...it was over in about 2 minutes. I was kind of annoyed I had to drive an hour just for 2 minutes, but Chaetun thought it was great egg hunt, so I guess it was worth it. Chaetun had the hang of it and was able to get quite a few eggs. Xadun didn't really get it and of course Brekan wasn't fast enough with the hundreds of other children racing to get the eggs, so they each only got a couple of eggs.

After the hunt we came home for a little bit and then went to Ellen & Boyd's for a barbecue. After lunch, Ellen had to make a pie for someone in her ward and the boys wanted to help. Chaetun loves to lick the mixers afterwards

The boys looked really cute in their Easter outfits. We couldn't get any "good" pictures, so here's the best we got.

One of Xadun's many faces

The Fam

Chris' parents did another egg hunt for the boys after we got home from church. Chris videoed it, but I can't find my computer connector to get it off the camera :S

First "Real" Haircut

2008-03-26T21:58:00.002-06:00

The boys have been in need of a haircut for awhile. Their hair grows SO fast!! I had been cutting it, but really, I suck. So, I took them to get their hair cut by a professional, just a local Super Cuts. This was Brekan's first professional haircut. He did pretty well. Next time we'll just make sure he goes first so he doesn't keep turning around looking for the suckers his brother got :S

The before look

During

After. Isn't he so cute!! I love this pic.

2008-03-18T18:26:00.002-06:00

It's a BOY!!!

So, the big ultrasound was today. The very first thing we saw when she started the ultrasound was the between the leg shot. It was very clear and I called it myself. It's another boy. I've actually known for about 4 weeks. The doctor at that time thought it was a boy, but wasn't 100% about that, so I didn't want to tell anyone. I was still hoping for that girl. So, I've had a few weeks to accept it and be okay. It's still been a little hard. I don't understand why I'm not supposed to have a girl, but I know someday I will. After I found out the first time I still hoped for that girl, but one day I started thinking about the movie "Saturday's Warrior". I kept thinking about the part at the end where the little girl is up in heaven, watching her family, waiting to be born. I started thinking about our little one up there, waiting to come to our home, and if it was a little boy, I didn't want him to think that we didn't want him. I wanted him to know that we will love him and be excited to have him in our home. It was at that time that I accepted the fact that this baby IS a boy. So, today, when it was confirmed, it wasn't a big deal. I already knew. I had already found a name. I had already found the perfect bedding. I'm still sad that I won't have a girl, but I'm happy to be having another little one come to our family. The boys have all been set on this being a "baby sister". I keep asking them what if it was a baby brother and they didn't want to listen. They got to come to the ultrasound today. After it was confirmed, Chaetun accepted it pretty well. Xadun kept insisting that it was a baby sister, but I'm not really sure he even knows what that means. :)

As for the baby, everything looks great. Heart looks good, growth looks good, actually about a week ahead, and no problems that they could see. We got some more pictures, but I'll have to wait until I get to work to scan them.

All About the Kids

2008-03-05T18:19:00.002-07:00

I figured it had been awhile since I had posted about the kids, so now is a good time to do that. It's so fun to watch the boys together these days. As always with siblings, there's fighting and crying, but there is also a lot of love. They all love each other so much. Chaetun and Xadun play really well together. It's fun to listen to the things they say to each other. In the morning when everyone wakes up, they are all so happy to see each other, asking if they had good naps, hugging, etc. Chaetun is such a good big brother and usually gets Brekan out of bed in the morning. Now remember, he's only 4 and he's getting Brekan out of a crib. It's funny to watch, but he does it. Brekan likes to wrestle with the other two, and they are so good to be soft and let him push them around. They all love to do that. As I am typing Chaetun and Xadun are walking through the house with their arms around each other. So cute!!

Chaetun has just a couple of months left of preschool. It has been so good for him to be in this preschool for the last 2 years. He has not only learned all of his letters, but also their sounds and how to write them. He has pretty much mastered writing his first name and we're starting to work on his last name. We working on sounding things out and reading, but he's pretty good and hearing a word, sounding it out, and figuring out how it's spelled. We've got him on a waiting list to a new charter school in the area. I'm trying to decide if I want to become a founding member and put in the volunteer hours to get him moved up on the waiting list. I really want him to get in, so I may end up doing it.

For Valentine's Day at school, all the kids make general valentine's and sign their name to all of them. Here's Chaetun showing off his writing skills.

Last week at school they had "Dress up like a fairy tale day." Chaetun dressed up like Jack and the Bean stalk. We think it turned out pretty cute. (I'm not sure what's up with the Chandler-ish smiles. He seems to do that now days in pictures.)

Xadun is almost 3 and I'm hoping the 3s are better than the 2s. Xadun has a very stong personality and will push to the very limit. I'd like to get him into a preschool this next year, but I need to find one local. Chaetun's has been great, but it's too far away now that we've moved. Xadun likes to do almost anything his brother does. He loves to color, whether he has paper or not. :S He's also an eater. He is ALWAYS hungry! He's in his second plus year of nursery and still struggles. He was doing well in our old ward and had some friends, but he's gone a little backwards in the new ward. We hope he will readjust soon. We also hope that the potty training thing will kick in soon. He doesn't mind sitting on the potty, but he doesn't necessarily always ask when he has to go, and he never goes when he has to poop, which would really be a benefit to him. Soon, we hope, soon!

Of course, Xadun had to do some valentine's too. He mostly just colored on them. One thing about Xadun, he has some of the funniest faces. He often pulls them when he is in trouble and we have a hard time keeping a straight face.

Playing with one of their favorite toys, balloons.

Brekan is quite a happy little boy. He, too, loves to eat. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, but if you didn't run out of food, he would never stop eating. As most one year olds do, he likes to make messes and is pretty good at it. He's very lovable and has the cutest little smile. He will be 18 months old next week. We've already started taking him to nursery because he just won't sit still in any of my classes. He has done really well and after being in there for a half hour the first week, I left and he has been fine. It's such a relief!! At 18 months he's not talking - at all!! He says "mama" but I'm not sure if that's in reference to me or just babbling. About 6 months ago the NICU called to check up on him because they have some ongoing clinics for children who were in the NICU. At one year old they asked about his motor skills which were fine. They said that they would call back at 2 years to check on their speech and see if anything is needed their. We have an appointment for his well chec next week, though, and I'll talk to his doctor about it. If we need to get him into speech therapy now, we will. Though he doesn't talk, he is very smart. He understand most of the things we say and tell him to do, so I'm not worried about that, he just hasn't started talking yet. We have taught him some signs so he can communicate and it gets us by for the time being.

No words necessary

A new place to sit.

Some of all of them together

Brotherly love

Static cling

Chaetun was so excited when Brekan learned to climb up on HIS bed. That was a litle scary for mom and dad!

A few weeks ago Chris and his parents took Chaetun and Xadun tubing. Apparently Chaetun loved it and Xadun mostly just sat in his tube.

Their first snowman.

And for the exciting new in our house...We're Expecting!! Yes, #4 is on the way. From the moment I told the boys, Chaetun has been calling it a "she" and now all they talk about it their baby sister. I have, in no way, put that in their heads. They did that all on their own. I hope they're not dissappointed. I'm 16 weeks, now. I got to have an early ultrasound as part of a research study I'm participating in. This study is seeing if there is a genetic reason for early deliveries. The doctor said he's never had a patient that delivered 4 babies early, so I'll be a first for him. I'm due Aug 21st, so we're expecting mid July.

Grand Opening

2008-03-05T17:30:00.002-07:00

I know this blog title has been repeated, but this IS a new one. We had a great time at our grand opening. We had a good stream of people coming in for about 11 hours and had about 20 people sign up, so it was a good turn out. We're still working to get our numbers up, but it's coming along. Here's a few pictures from the event.

Neil, one of the owners of Elite Personal Training, our training company, did his weekly training radio show live from the club.

Becky & Becky trying out the new Expresso Bikes. These bikes are pretty cool! They're totally interactive with steerable handlebars and a shifter.

Two members of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, Kevin, our manager, Chris, Tom, Shawn & Kyle, the personal trainers, and then another member of the Chamber. Of course, the kids and I are in front. This was the official ribbon cutting ceremony.

The outside of the club when everything was up. We had a big sound system from our DJ, the balloon arch, and the big "fly guy" to help attract people.

2008-02-22T15:41:00.001-07:00

GRAND OPENING
We are having our Grand Opening for the gym tomorrow, Feb 23. Anyone in the area, or even just passing through is invited to come. We would love to see everyone. We'll have food, fun, and prizes. Come even if you don't live here.

555 S 200 W
Bountiful, UT 84010

Pictures of the gym, I know you've been waiting

2008-02-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

So, I guess it's about time we showed off the gym, too. We have been open now for about 3 weeks and our membership is steadily growing. But we still have a lot of growth to go. So, if you know anyone in the Bountiful area, send them our way! :)

We were very excited to get the sign. It came later than everything else and just finished it off.

The "Big A$$ Fan" That's the real name. It spans 25 FEET, and moves some air!

The trainer's area

Private bathroom and shower

Tanning room (obviously)

The back wall

Selectorized weights

Heavier weights

Cardio, all with cardio theater

The office is in there

Because you've all been waiting with baited breath...

2008-02-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

I am FINALLY posting pictures of at least part of our house. We only got our real countertops a couple of weeks ago, so that was mostly what we were waiting for. Well, that and cleaning. I'm only posting pics of a couple of rooms. We'll post more as we complete more as far as pulling it all together.

So, here is a picture of the temporary UGLY countertops (this was just before they took them off, that's why everything looks so bad)

And these are my awesome stainless steel countertops.

Here's the kitchen all put together

The views out to the family room

A TV goes in that hole above the fireplace

The door

A visual of how tall the ceilings are in the living room

The outside, all done, with lots of snow.

So, there you have it. Hopefully our room will look done soon so I can post those ones next.

President Hinckley Dedication

2008-01-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Last night I must admit I was shocked when the breaking news said that President Hinckley had passed away. For some reason, in my head, I always felt like he would be around, even though I know that really wasn't true. My stomach sank and my heart was heavy after hearing the news. President Hinckley is by far the prophet I remember most and has made such an impact on our lives. He will be greatly missed. A friend posted this video on MySpace and I wanted to share it here since most of my family isn't on MySpace. It is very touching.

Dedication to Gordon B. Hinckley

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Winter Fun

2008-01-22T22:03:00.000-07:00

Last week Chris had promised the kids they would got sledding. He wasn't able to get home in time with the short days, so I suggested that we try ice skating instead. This is a MUCH more difficult winter activity - for all involved. When we had our skates on and were on our way out on the ice they had everyone get off and brought the Zamboni out to smooth things out. That definitely made it interesting for our very beginner family. I was the only one who had ever been ice skating before. I started out with Xadun and Chris started out with Chaetun. That was hard!!

Xadun couldn't keep his feet under him, so I ended up holding him up most of the time and he's a heavy kid. We only made it about half way around the rink when I decided I had the wrong child.

Chaetun was having an easier time keeping his feet under him and could push himself along a little bit.

So, I switched. Chris took Xadun and I took Chaetun. Much easier this way.

We only made it around the rink once or twice with the kids and they were done. Mine and Chris' ankles were also feeling done. So, we left the kids out with Grandma and Chris and I went out and went around a few times with just the two of us (and a hundred other people). I thought it was pretty fun, but something everyone would need a little more training for.

Christmas...Really Late

2008-01-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I'm really late in getting these up, but I didn't want to forget about Christmas, so here's some pictures.

Chaetun had a speaking part in his Christmas program this year. He did really well. Also attached to this video is a cute little dance routine that some kids did. Chaetun wasn't in it, but I thought it was really cute, so I included it.

We had a full house at Christmas this year. Not only did we have us and my mom, we also had Chris' parents as well as my grandparents. It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed having all their grandmas and grandpas there.

Chaetun's favorite gift was this Transformer's helmet that changes his voice. He took it to school for show and tell and it continues to get played with daily, unlike most of the toys.

Xadun really likes his Thomas the Train laptop. It's a little complicated for his age, but he'll learn. He also like the game he and Chaetun got. Oh, and we can't forget the slippers.

Brekan wasn't too interested in unwrapping presents. He only opened a couple and his brothers kindly opened the rest for him. He was often more interested in his brother's presents

But more important was breakfast

Tag

2007-12-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Janna tagged me a couple of weeks ago and she didn't think I'd do it ;) So here goes...
TAG! YOU'RE IT!!!
----------
Here's how you play:
Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird or random facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end choose 10 people to be tagged, list their names and why you tagged them. Don't forget to leave them a comment saying 'You're It!' and to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you so ,since you can't tag me back, let me know when you are done so I can go read YOUR blog answers.

1. I'm not anal or OCD about a whole lot, but things I am about are generally pretty dumb. When I was in college I had a different color folder for each class. Not too bad, you say? Well that's not it. Each folder had to in some way match the book for the class and I also had a matching pen. So, each class' notes were in a specific color and I HATED having to use a different color if I couldn't find the right one.

2. I'm a little eccentric about laundry (I swear I already had this one before I read Stacey's :) ) I have several piles of laundry: white, blue, black, red, and green. It makes for a lot of laundry. I also take out several shirts and hang them up, so not everything goes in the dryer. I hate when anyone else does my laundry, which is really weird since I really hate doing my own laundry. Go figure.

3. I have a thing about being different. I don't like to go with the flow of everything, but at the same time I don't want to stand out, so they are small things that I do to be different. My nails are almost never red or pink. That's too normal. I like to wear purple, orange, green, yellow, blue, or any other color that most people won't wear. My house is DEFINITELY not like most. I know most of you haven't seen the inside yet, but it is very different. Have you heard my children's names? Yeah, another thing where I just want to be, and them to be, different.

4. Growing up my favorite animal was a flamingo. I think this stemmed from a bag I got for my birthday from my grandma when I was 7. It, obviously, had flamingos on it and I have since been fascinated. It has only been since we moved in here that we went through boxes and got rid of much of my flamingo collection. I even had a flamingo shower curtain (that was never going to be hung in my house).

5. I like to plan my pregnancies based on the birth stone. It didn't start that way, but after my kids started coming early, I started thinking about which stone would be better, March or April. Obviously April. Then when Brekan came he was due in October, but we knew he would come a month early and it would be a Sapphire. My mother's ring will be awesome!! :)

6. I am an incredibly picky eater. There's not much I do like, actually. I don't like veggies except corn. I like most fruit except bananas and melons. But most food has yucky veggies in it, and then it makes the whole thing gross. It makes it very hard to eat healthy.

7. I love to watch LA Ink. I would never get a tattoo myself, but I love watching this one. I don't particularly care for Miami Ink, but LA Ink is cool. The artists are truly artists and I am amazed at what can come out on a person's body. Personally, the pain would be way too much for me and I probably wouldn't like 10 or 15 years down the road, so, not for me.

8. I graduated from college just 2 years after I graduated from college, on my 20th birthday. I hated high school so I was in a hurry to get out of there. I didn't go at all my senior year, but chose to walk with them because that's when my friends did. I completed college in 3 years because I went full time the entire time, even summers. (this was largely due to the fact that I was waiting for a missionary and had no social life, but it all worked out in the end)

9. I don't like to sleep under the comforter of my bed. This started when I was a teenager and felt that if I didn't sleep under the comforter then I wouldn't have to make the bed. To this day I will sleep on top of the comforter but under a blanket. We just got a new one, though, and Chris is making me sleep under it so as not to get it dirty or make it break down faster.

10. I symmetrical issues (again I had this one before Stacey posted :) ) We've been talking about the location of a fan in the gym and I am having a hard time with the fact that it might have to go NOT in the center. My brain just can not function that way. I know you are supposed to decorate in 3s, but that's not symmetrical, so I don't know if I can do that. It's also the reason I want 4 kids, not 3 or 5.

Ok, most people have already been tagged for this, so I don't know who else to tag, but for those of you who haven't been tagged (my FAMILY) do it, do it. I want to know your weirdities too.

2007-12-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Polar Express

We took the kids up to Heber on Thursday to ride the "Polar Express". They transform the Heber Creeper (an old train for all you non-Utahns) in to the PE. My boys really like this movie and Xadun LOVES trains, so we were excited to go.

Part of riding the Polar Express is that you have to wear your jammies (well you don't HAVE to, but it adds to the fun), so we went and got some new warm jammies at the outlets before we went on to Heber. We all got them so even us adults were wearing jammies (not many other parents followed suit :S)

The trains cars, there were about 10 of them, were all packed. Initially we got on the wrong one. We didn't know there were assigned cars. Oops!

When we figured out we were on the wrong one, we had to run to the other end to get on the right one. It was worth it, though. The seats were nicer and this car was much more entertaining.

We had our own tour guide that made it a lot more fun than if we had just sat there. She played music, told jokes, read us the book, etc.

We also had our own elf helpers, Mistle Toe and Marshmellow. They helped pass out the cookies, hot chocolate, and books, among other things. They also told us a few jokes and led us in the "12 Days of Christmas".

On our way to the North Pole, in addition to having cookies and hot chocolate, we also got to meet Mrs. Claus. She gave us the recipe for the hot chocolate and said Hi to all the kids.

(Sorry about the red eye, I didn't fix them first)

When we arrived at the North Pole, we picked up Santa and headed back to Heber. Santa of course said hi to all the kids and made sure to pass out the bells to all that believed.

Can't forget about the conductor who came through and punched the tickets, but it was just one hole, not a whole word.

It was a great night to get away and let the kids do something fun. We stayed up at the condo in Midway for a couple of nights just to make it the full getaway.

Just an Update

2007-12-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Our life in the last couple of months has gone from relatively quiet to busy, crazy, non-stop. Thus, my lack of updates. I only get a chance to read everyone else's goings on, but no time to post about our own. So, I'm caught up on most of you, now I'll try to get you caught up on us.

We finally closed and moved into our house over Thanksgiving weekend, despite it not being completely done. They have come back to complete most of it, but there are still a couple of large things still incomplete. We don't yet have our kitchen countertops. We have some temporary ones that we needed in order to close, but are waiting on the real ones. They are custom made stainless steel, so we have been at the manufacturer's mercy. When I talked to him this week he promised me they'd be here by Christmas. I sincerely hope that is the case. The other big thing is our fireplace. The fireplace itself is in, but the gas line and glass that goes inside are not. We hope that, too, will be in this week. Downstairs in my mom's place, she is waiting for one more cabinet and then the countertops and she will finally be able to move in. Most of her stuff is already here, she'll just have to move all her clothes from Kathy's.

The real cause of our busy-ness has been the gym. We embarked on this new journey 9 months ago, but only really got going about a month ago. We started the build-out on our building on Nov 12 and started pre-sales Nov 19. Those two things have made it a "real" venture and have definitely taken time. I now go into the gym 4 times a week, which means I've had to find people to watch the kids. I think we've figured out a good schedule now, so that will help things be less hectic. This weekend they are finishing the painting and then will do carpet and tile next week. We were supposed to open Dec 26, but we'll have to push that back a couple of days now. As long as we open by the new year, which we should be able to do, we'll be happy.

Outside of that, not much is happening. When the house is complete and we are rid of all the boxes that still invade our home, I will take and post pictures. I will do the same with the gym when it's done.

We hope you are all well and wish you all Happy Holidays!

Our Little Hairdresser

2007-11-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

I guess I'll start posting here again since the other one is apparently hard to get to....

I haven't been using my straightener lately, so apparently it has become a toy. Xadun has taken to doing hair. He says he's cutting it - I think it's time to make sure the scissors are put away.

"Hold still, Chaetun"

Trying Something New

2007-10-22T00:12:00.000-06:00

Check out the new blog we're trying out to see if we like it:

http://web.mac.com/mengelbrecht/

Click on the red "Blog" to get to the blog.

2007-10-17T09:04:00.000-06:00

We're Approved!!!!!

I just received a call from CIT, the company we've been working with to get our SBA loan. We've been approved. Hallelujah!! We've been working on this funding thing for months now and it has been a very frustrating process. We were hoping to already be open now, but that has obviously not been the case. Now that we're approved, we feel good about moving forward with the build out (we had already gotten things started) and we will be able to pay for everything. The plan now is to open the day after Christmas and get all those New Year's resolution-ers coming to our club.

Malachi's Vision

2007-10-01T10:43:00.000-06:00

At our Stake Conference last month the Stake President announced a project he felt was very important for our Stake at this time. We were not at Stake Conference, but yesterday's meetings at church covered it again so that everyone could learn and understand the President's vision for us. The name of the project its Malachi's Vision, coming from Malachi 4:5-6, where we are told that in the last day, Elijah shall return and turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children will be turned to their fathers. This is something we've heard for a long time and we know that by doing temple work for the dead we are helping to do this.

What was introduced to us through the stake is something a little different. We have been asked to go to www.familysearchindexing.org and start doing extraction work. The Church has so many records of people from years past, but the records have to be translated or extracted so that we can do the work for those people. My grandpa did extraction work for a long time, before his eye sight got bad, but his seemed so different. He had actual papers (copies of the originals) that he extracted. The church has now made it possible for anyone to do this work.

The vision was talked about yesterday in Sacrament Meeting as well as our combined Elders Quorum/Relief Society meeting. As the woman from the Stake was explaining how easy it is to do this, I got very excited. My friend mentioned that she has been enjoying this work because she can't go to the temple as often as she would like, but she can do a little of this work everyday, at home, while her kids or playing or taking a nap. I came home from church, looked up the website and volunteered to do some myself.

So far I've indexed 200 names. Right now they are mostly working on the 1900 census in the US. So, when you download a batch of 50 names, you get part of one state's census. I've done some from Wisconsin and Michigan. It's so interesting to see the different countries have immigrated from, how many children people have, how many people have lost children along the way, etc. I am really enjoying the work. It gives me a way to "turn the hearts" at home, everyday if I want to, when I can't go to the temple that often.

For anyone else who can't go to the temple as often as you would like, but has a few minutes here and there, I would encourage you to check out the site. Anyone can do it. There's a tutorial to teach you exactly what to do. You will be blessed.

2007-09-19T16:37:00.000-06:00

Our Hero Grandpa

Last weekend we had an incredible opportunity to see my Grandpa off and home for "Operation Hero Flight". This was a trip that was planned for veterans of WWII. Grandpa had called and put his name in to go, but hadn't heard anything for quite awhile, so he didn't think he was going to get to go. The trip was on Friday and on Tuesday he got a call. Someone had dropped out at the last minute, and the gal in charge of this part remembered him and thought that he should be the one to fill the last seat on the plane. As a family, we were all excited for him to go, but also a little scared. Afterall, he IS 93. Traveling by himself at his age just sounded a little scary. We later found, though, that there would be plenty of emergency personnel, and my cousin Clint, who lives in Baltimore, would be able to meet Grandpa for the weekend and help him around. We all felt better after that.

It was such an awesome experience to be at the ceremony when they left. We were also able to be there when they came home, and that, again, was an emotional experience. We really are proud of Grandpa and feel he is our "Hero".

2007-09-12T10:31:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Brekan!

Yesterday was Brekan's 1st birthday. He is so much fun!! He is such a happy baby! He loves to just smile at you and wave. He's entered a climbing phase and loves to climb on anything low enough he can get on, which is pretty much everything in our apartment right now. He says "mama" and "dada", and "hi". I have found that with your first child you try and get them to do everything so early. But with him as my third, I am just enjoying things as they come and not pushing him to do anything. He has just one tooth barely breaking through, so he doesn't eat much besides baby food, but he had no problem with his ice cream cake last night. We love him so much and are so blessed to have him in our family!!

All smiles

Lovin' the cake!

Opening presents

This WAS a ball when we bought it for Brekan. It was broken as soon as we got home (by some older brothers). So Daddy made it a hat.

2007-09-10T16:08:00.000-06:00

Is it done yet?

The answer is no, but it is getting there. Much progress has been made on the home, ans as long as it continues, we should be done in the next couple of months. So, here some pictures of what has been accomplished.

The stucco done. We like the green, ite matches the slate pretty well.

The rock was almost done

But started to fall off. Now there has been a change in who is installing it and it has to all be taken down and re-done.

The soffit and facia are done.

My mom stained her concrete floor. This is the base stain in her part. Ours is black.

After the second coat to make it a marble look.

After the sealer was put on. This is the finished product.

Our part of the basement, jet black.

They are currently working on the finish work and tile. Painting should start sometime next week.

Other recent happenings

2007-08-18T10:31:00.000-06:00

We finished our busy summer with our trips to Portland for our "Family Reunion" function and then the next weekend in Park City for the annual Anytime Fitness conference. It's nice to be home and not have to worry about the next trip. The last night at the conference they played their version of "Deal or No Deal". It was pretty funny. They had quite a variety of prizes like golf balls, money, a real Running Man tattoo, and $10,000. Here's a picture of the board.

The contestants

Chris and I with our Franchise Consultant, Marty

The next weekend was my 10 year class reunion. Where did the time go? Most of my friends from the group we hung out with were there. We had a picnic at the park with the whole family and then went to "The Lodge" at Maddox for dinner. We had a fun both times.

Rachel

SOOO Janelle

Yvonne, Jami, Rachel, Me, Janelle, Linda

Jami and her husband Jason

Yvonne and Scott

Janelle and Mike

Rachel, Cheryl, Darcy, Yvonne, Me, Janelle, and Jami

Sunday I got to meet up with Heather and her family. It was short, but I was glad we got to meet up since they were so close.

The twins, Claire & Carlie, and Chaetun and Xadun

One of the girls, I can't tell them apart, loved Xadun's Cars hat and didn't want to take it off.

There is Light at the End of the Tunnel

2007-08-18T10:00:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I last posted about the house and I know you are all DYING to know what's going on. ;) Well, I don't have a ton of pictures from that time because, though they were working, it was all on non house changing things. The plumbing, electrical, and insulation are all done and now they're working on the fun stuff. It's the current stage that give me hope that we will someday soon live in our house.

All the gas lines throughout the house. Kind of scary to think about it.

The scaffolding's up!!

The rock is on, well, some of it at least.

The rock is so heavy (seriously!!) they have to wire it on while the mud on the back dries.

The bonus room has sheet rock.

They worked fast and had the whole upstairs sheet rocked in 2 days!

Our custom made door.

I LOVE the slate on the front of the house!! I can't wait to see it with the stucco done (the color you see is just the base coat, not the final.)

2007-08-17T09:50:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday, Chris!!

Today Chris turns the big 3-0. I guess 30 isn't so bad when you're doing so well in life. I'm so blessed to be married to a man with such drive. Sometimes I wish he'd sit still for just a minute, but in all reality, everything we have is because he is always working. I think it's pretty awesome for a 30 year old to own 5 franchises and a nice house, and that's all because of his personal drive. He is a great example to our kids of hard work, don't submit to fear, and love.

I love you!!!

I Have a Family Tree

2007-07-18T15:08:00.000-06:00

With branches by the dozen...

Last week was our bi-annual Wight Family Reunion. Though attendance was down this year and there was a lot less planned, we still managed to have a lot of fun. The reunion started Wednesday and went until Saturday.

Of course my children found the only mud puddle for miles around. Playing with the Welling grandkids.

Xadun swinging with Drace, Michaela, and Parker.

Chaetun had to be in the middle of whatever excitement was going on. This was the volleyball game where he was close to getting hit because he was busy talking to the bystanders. lol

Chaetun, Xadun, and Drace doing pasta crafts.

Grandma helping Chaetun make his animal necklace.

Thursday is always the free day to do whatever we want. We generally go with all the Wellings up to Bear Lake to play. This year Kara, Gavin's wife, and her brothers brought up their boat. The little kids got the first rides. Chaetun has ridden on the tube before (as was seen in Montana) but never by himself. I let him do it as long as I was in the boat. He did great!!

Michaela, Chaetun, and Newell

Hold on tight!!

This is just after everyone else fell off. Brady was driving the boat and cut the engine to knock one of the other boys off. He forgot that by cutting the engine, the front of the tubes go under water knocking the kids off. But not Chaetun. He was holding on so tight that his head went under with the tube until it popped back up. He was a little shaken by it and wanted to get off for a little bit.

It wasn't long until he was ready to get back on. :)

Playing at the beach

Grandpa listening to his music

Making rockets with Ethan Russell

Shooting the rockets

One of the family traditions that had gone away for awhile was revived this year thanks to Ryan Welling. Ryan did a great job with the Family Follies, we had a lot of fun. I only have pictures of a couple of the 6 events, but it was a lot of fun.

I don't know the name of the first event, but we had five people blindfolded who pulled one person who had to direct us down and around a garbage can.

I couldn't keep up

Chris' team had a collision with the yellow team. It was pretty funny!!

My gangster Chaetun and Lucas

The water sponge game

The last event was eating cheese puffs. Luckily I got to sit out of this one.

Gavin was the first to finish his 35 cheese puffs.

The pink team won and received their golden wood medals. My red team came in second and Chris' green team came in last. lol

Jaxon fell asleep in the cubbies along the wall. Ryan and Tiffanie looked him for quite awhile before finding him here. haha

Napleon Dynamite

2007-07-17T12:35:00.000-06:00

My kids were re-creating a scene from Napoleon Dynamite this morning and I just had to capture it. Chaetun is jut like his dad when it come to movies. He can recite almost the whole thing. But when I heard Xadun saying the words too, I just had to show everyone else.

Montana

2007-07-16T11:49:00.001-06:00

It's a week late, but I didn't have time to do this blog before I left for our family reunion.

The first week of the month we took a trip up to Montana to visit Chris' aunt & uncle, Pat & Roger. Chris used to go up there every summer and stay with them and loved it. He wanted to be able to take the boys up there. Pat & Roger had never actually met any of the boys, so it was good for everyone. Chris' parents drove up with him and the 2 older boys and Brekan and I flew.

The first couple of days were just relaxing days for everyone. They didn't do much except stick around the house. They did find a few fun things, though...

Petting the horse

Chaetun riding JJ

Xadun riding JJ

Helping Aunt Pat feed the fish in the pond

Playing in the pool with their new floating swimsuits

Monday after I arrived and we had a nap, we headed up to Pat & Roger's lake front property at Lake Thompson. As much as I'm not a fan of camping, it wasn't too bad. They had a couple of trailers that we stayed in, so we were able to shower and have bathrooms. They also had a fairly clean "Johnny on the Spot" that wasn't too bad. Because the property is lake front, they have their very own dock. It was pretty hot, so we would just hop in the lake to cool off. They also had a boat to fish and have fun with.

Hanging out in the tubes

Brekan decided he didn't like his turtle tube because he couldn't reach the water. He wanted to be able to splash, too.

There was a log that stuck out of the water just down the way. Through out the day you would see several turtles come out on the log to sun themselves. Chris snuck over at one point and was able to catch one of the turtles. The one he caught was the one the neighbors had been trying to catch for a week. He had a hook through his mouth and they wanted to get it out. This picture is of them working on it to get the hook out. They were successful.

Playing on the tube behind the boat.

Crawling on the dock.

The whole family on the tube (except for Brekan, of course)

Chaetun with Papa and his fish. Grandpa caught this fish, but the first day they went out on the boat, Chaetun was on the only one to catch anything and he caught 2. Not bad for his first day of fishing. Unfortunately, those pictures are on someone else's camera.

So relaxing it put him to sleep.

In Montana none of the fireworks were illegal, so we got a pretty good show. Roger teamed up with the neighbor next door and we got to watch from the dock. Another neighbor lit some off from his boat in the middle of the lake. It was a pretty good 4th.

Watching the fireworks on the dock

Washing all the bugs off the car after getting home from the lake.

All in all it was a good trip and everyone enjoyed themselves!

Homeless

2007-06-22T10:00:00.000-06:00

Well, we still have roofs over our heads, but we are now all NOT homeowners. My mom closed on her house on Wednesday and we unloaded our last trailer last night. Chris and I, of course, are in a ghetto apartment, and my mom will be living with her cousin, Kathy, for the next few months while the house is being finished. Though it is not fun to live in chaos and with life up in the air, it's nice to know that both homes are sold and we don't have that worry anymore. The house is STILL in the framing process [ :( ] but we hope they move out of that SOON! We have chosen most of the things we need to, so hopefully that won't hold us up as the process continues.

We have a roof!

2007-06-13T12:23:00.000-06:00

I didn't realize, again, that he had been so long since I posted pictures of the house. Maybe that's because they've been working on the same thing that whole time. It has taken 3-4 weeks just to get the roof on. They are telling us that things are still on schedule to be done with the framing this week.

This is after most of the trusses were up. You can't see above the garage, but those are really the only ones missing except for that peak in the middle.

After putting most of the plywood on the trusses. It's still not complete, but I'm told they should be completing that Thursday or Friday.

This is Chris up in the bonus room. This is the only place that hasn't been completed in terms of the trusses, but again should be finished this weekend.

We're looking forward to them being done with the framing so that they get get the windows and doors in and I don't have to be so worried about the kids getting close to the edges each time we're there.

Another exciting thing is that we have found someone to design our cabinets. The place our builder sent us to didn't really have much of a concept of contemporary cabinets which is what we want. We have looked at IKEA cabinets a lot and really like them. My mom found an add in the classifieds for someone who designs IKEA cabinets. When she called her she found that she is from New York and is just trying to get started here. When we met her we found how accomplished she really is. Her work has been extensive and looks great!! She's usually very expensive, but since we're her first job in Utah, she's giving us a break. The awesome part is that she lives just around the corner from the house. She lives in the only house on the other side of the freeway, for those of you who know the area. How awesome is that? She's looking forward to us moving in so she can go walking with my mom. We're excited she already has a friend :)

Miscellaneous Happenings

2007-06-13T11:59:00.000-06:00

Instead of posting 3 or 4 different blogs since I'm so behind, I figured I'd just condence them into one and just give the highlights. :)

This is proof of Brekan becoming mobile. He was out in the other room, supposedly eating. He kept crying and I thought he just lost his bottle. I finally went out to give him the bottle and this is where I found him. haha No wonder he wouldn't stop crying. Brekan has been doing the army crawl for the last few weeks, now. Just this last week he has finally gotten up on the hands and knees and figured out how to coordinate his hands and legs.

I love this picture of my boys with Grandpa. As the days go on, I become increasingly aware of the limited time we have with Grandma & Grandpa. I try to capture these moments we spend with them each time I can. My boys LOVE to visit Grandma & Grandpa and ask to every time we visit the house. On this particular day, Chaetun wanted Grandpa to push him in the wheelchair and play with them. Grandpa put on his shoes and they went outside to play. He tried to get Chaetun to climb the tree, but Chaetun wasn't quite up to that.

Monday was the boys' first visit to the dentist. I had told Chaetun about it a couple of weeks ago, so he had been looking forward to it. He loves to go to the doctor and the dentist was no different. Unfortunately, Chaetun has four small cavities in his back molars that need to be filled and sealed. The good thing is, though, that Chaetun said he liked the dentist and we should go back more often. :)

Xadun, on the other had, wasn't so excited to be there. After seeing Chaetun get X-rays, Xadun wanted his turn, until he actually got in the chair. Then when it was his turn to get his teeth clean, he again wasn't too thrilled. Hopefully consistent visits will improve that.

Fun in the Sun

2007-05-22T16:15:00.000-06:00

Saturday was a day spent out in the sun. We worked out in my mom's yard giving it a little "curb appeal". Hopefully it worked :) The boys love to be outside and wanted to help, too. Here's a few pictures of the fun.

Chaetun helping dig up some of the grass.

Chaetun helping transfer the dirt to the new flower beds

Xadun using his bucket, too

Measuring the bike

Brekan playing in the grass

I just realized I don't have any "after" pictures of the work that was done, but it looks much better!!

Never too young to dance!!

2007-05-22T15:59:00.000-06:00

Friday night was my cousin's wedding. They didn't have a "normal" line reception, instead it was more of an open house/dance type reception. The place they had it had a little stage in the front . My aunt Bonnie had my cousin, Melanie's, kids. Hailey is the same age as Chaetun and Cassidy is the same age as Xadun, so they played well together. Cassidy and Hailey started dancing, so I tried to pair the boys with the girls and taught them to dance - hand on waist and the other hand up, the proper way. :) Xadun and Cassidy did it for a little while, but they're 2 and just wanted to jump and run. Once Hailey had a boy for a partner, though, she was all over him to dance. It was sooo funny. Chaetun, being a true boy, kept rolling his eyes, looking up at the ceiling and saying, "MOOOOOMMMMM!" Then he kept telling me, "Mom, I'm a COWBOY!" Never the less, Hailey did get him to dance a few times.

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School Days

2007-05-21T15:40:00.001-06:00

Thursday was Chaetun's last day of his first year of preschool. They had a program to end it. It was so cute!! Chaetun actually sang the songs this time (at the Christmas program he didn't). Listening to kids sing is always so funny...especially when they scream/sing the songs.

Each child has a part in the program. Chaetun's song was "Long, Tall Texan" (I thought it was Long Horned Cowboy, but I was wrong :s). He had been singing the song for a few days, so I figured that must have been his song. It was a great song for Chaetun. His uncles Boyd and Mark would be proud :)

After the program was over, all the kids got completion/graduation certificates. Chaetun's is a completion certificate since he gets to go back next year.

Chaetun & Mrs. Perry, his teacher

Chaetun learned so much at school this year. He learned all of his letters, he recognizes them all. Next year he'll learn more about their sounds and reading them. He learned how to count to 10 in spanish as well as some of his colors in spanish. The learned about Paul Revere, baby chicks, and all sorts of other stuff. The biggest thing he learned is probably how to write his name. It's still not perfect, but we'll continue to work on it over the summer. He also got to meet a bunch of new friends. Hopefully, some will be back next year.

I was sad that the school year was over, mostly for Chaetun, but I think he'll do okay. We'll make sure to continue to practice letters, numbers, and writing his name. Hopefully we'll also start working on writing his last name.

Progress

2007-05-04T22:36:00.000-06:00

I knew I was behind on updating on the house, but I didn't realize I hadn't posted pictures for over a month. So...I will try to keep them condensed so as not to bore you too much. :)

The basement plumbing

They filled in the dirt around the house and in the garage

Instead of a normal window well, we wanted to do it rock instead

Where the septic tank and drainage field is

The basement framed and the driveways poured

The main room of my mom's house in the basement

The back of the house with the basement framed

Beginning of the upstairs framing (the other 2 boys were asleep in the van)

Where the great room and bedrooms will be

The view

Taking the Opportunity

2007-05-03T13:59:00.000-06:00

Today at lunch Chaetun was talking about Jesus dying. He's talked about it a little since Easter when we explained why we celebrate Easter. Since he brought it up I decided to take the opportunity to teach a little more. We talked about how Jesus died but that he came back to life again. We somehow got to the fact that his grandpa, my dad died, too. I told Chaetun that he lives in heaven. He didn't know where that was, so I had to explain that's where Heavenly Father and Jesus live and that's where we go when we die. We talked about how even though my dad died when I was Chaetun's age (hard to even think about) we will still get to see him someday. I told him that's why we go to the temple, to be sealed so that we can be a family forever. Since this was really the first opportunity for me to tell Chaetun about my dad, I asked if he wanted to see some pictures of him. Of course he did, so I got my mom's only photo album out. We looked at pictures of me as a baby and little girl, pictures of Grandma and, of course, Grandpa.

Chaetun really liked this one because it was clowns :)

So, after all is said and done, I don't know how much he really understands about it all, but hopefully I'll have enough opportunities that one day it will all sink in.

Happy Birthday, Xadun!

2007-04-11T23:20:00.000-06:00

Xadun celebrated his 2nd birthday on Easter this year. At this point, he still doesn't really know what his birthday is. Chaetun sure did, though. He kept asking if Xadun could open his presents and kept telling me he wanted to share with him. Yeah, of course you want to share Xadun's presents, but not your own. :s

We used the family Easter BBQ as a celebration for his birthday. I made another cake. Again, I'm no Martha Stewart, but it didn't turn out too bad

Eating the cone, he doesn't like ice cream.

Don't mind my finger

After opening the cars first, he didn't want to touch anything else. Grandma ended up opening the basketball hoop. Then he liked it :)

After all is said and done, they were playing on the box, not with the toys.

Happy Easter

2007-04-11T22:49:00.000-06:00

Our Easter was eventful, yet uneventful at the same time. We did a lot of Easter stuff on Saturday as well as Xadun's birthday which was also on Sunday. (Stay tuned for that blog :) ) My mom's ward had an Easter brunch on Saturday, so we went to that. They had a really yummy egg casserole!! After breakfast they had an Easter egg hunt.

After getting ALL that candy we went back in to get pictures with the Easter Bunny

Lunch was at Ellen & Boyd's. My kids LOVE going to see Grandma & Grandpa (great), Ellen & Boyd, and Mark & Carole!! The only bad part was it was in the dirt. I am NOT a fan of dirt. Chris keeps telling me it's what boys do, but it doesn't make me like it any better. Here's some pics from the day:

Xadun playing with Grandpa

Flying the Tustison's kite

All the kids playing in the dirt, plus Carole :) (Katie wasn't playing, just taking pictures.)

Chaetun & Riley on the tractor.

My boys

What'd you say?

We colored eggs that night. My mom heard a couple of new ways to color eggs, so we tried them.

This was the tissue paper method. You cut up different colors of tissue paper and wrap the wet egg in them...it didn't work.

This was using food coloring and rolling it around in the colander. It worked, but was more work than needed.

So, we finished the old fashioned way.

I thought I had pictures of Easter morning, but apparently I don't. Church at 9 makes for a whirlwind mom trying to get everyone ready.

How well do you know me?

2007-04-11T12:54:00.000-06:00

I posted this quiz on my MySpace site (www.myspace.com/mengelbrecht) and thought it would be fun to post here because, really, most of the answers on family know. So, if you feel so inclined, take it and see

Create your own Friend Quiz here

Happy Birthday, Chaetun!!

2007-04-05T20:59:00.000-06:00

Tuesday was Chaetun's 4th birthday. It's hard to believe it's been that long, but on the other hand...I've got two more kids, so it seems like he should be older. lol I think he had a great day. He had school that day so he was able to celebrate both at home and at school. At school he got to take an "About Me" poster and a show and tell. He took his twisting "Incredibles" toy from Disney on Ice. He was excited to show all his friends. Here's the poster we made:

The teachers at school gave him a small box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a Capri Sun. I thought it was pretty funny.

Chaetun had to wait until Daddy and Grandma got home from work to open his presents. He was very patient, though, and did bug me too much. :)

Both presents are getting a lot of use. Unfortunately, the automatic part of the T ball set is not working :( Hopefully we can get it fixed or we can take it back. He's still enjoying going outside and hitting the ball, though. He asks everyone to come out and play any chance he gets.

That night we went and saw the new Disney movie, "Meet the Robinsons". It was a really good show with a great message. We all enjoyed it.

After the show we came home for cake. Chaetune has been talking about a Dinosaur cake for months, so that's what he got. Now, keep in mind, I'm no Martha Stewart, so it's very basic, but, hey, he got his dinosaur :)

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And in classic Chaetun style, eating the cake with his finger

House progress

2007-04-02T11:21:00.000-06:00

We're almost 2 weeks into building the house, and so far, we're happy with the progress. We just hope it continues to go quickly! So here is the progress. I'll start with the plans:

The Front

Upstairs

Bonus Room

Basement

Here's the hole we were so excited about :)

The footings, with and without kids

The foundation walls are poured

From the back

The forms are off

They are planning on pouring the concrete floor on Friday.

Grandma & Grandpa

2007-04-02T10:05:00.000-06:00

Friday we went up to see the progress on the house. On the way up we saw traffic and decided we should wait to go home in order to avoid it. So, we decided to go up to see my grandma & grandpa since we were planning on it anyway this weekend. I love my grandparents. Grandpa is 93 and Grandma is 88. They are definitely getting up there, but they're still doing great. Each one has some challenges, but overall they're good considering their age. When I walked in the house I had to get up in my grandpa's face because he can't see. lol He's funny. When I sat down to talk to Grandma, I noticed she had a black eye. I had also noticed when I walked in that she had a very purple toe. Apparently she tripped on the stool and fell, probably on the kitchen chair. We joked that Grandpa was keeping her in line. :) That's only funny because that would sooo never happen. Here's a picture of her holding Brekan. You can kind of see the eye behind the glasses.

I always make sure to have my camera when we visit Grandma & Grandpa because I want to make sure my kids have pictures with them to remember them later. Not everyone has the opportunity to know their great-grandparents, I didn't. So, I want my kids to remember the wonderful blessing they've had. Here's a couple more pics:

Wearing Grandpa's hats

But the funniest part was Grandpa pushing the boys around in Grandma's wheelchair. Just to see a 93 year old man doing this was pretty funny, but my Grandpa is pretty funny anyway.

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I can't imagine life without my grandparents. They have been such a huge part of my life. I remember growing up, after my dad died, we used to go up to their house, or one of my aunt and uncle's, every weekend. My extended family is so important to me! I have been blessed with an incredible family and it all started with Grandma & Grandpa.

Brekan

2007-03-29T10:41:00.000-06:00

Today was Brekan's 6 month well chec. He's doing well, which I already knew. He's still a little guy, though. He weighs 13 lb 12 oz which is the 2nd percentile. His head is 42 cm which is the 3rd percentile, and is 25.5 inches which is the 8th percentile. Maybe since we started the oatmeal he'll start putting on a little more weight. Until then, though, we'll just enjoy the small little boy that he is. He had to get 3 shots, but he did really well. Cried only for a few seconds and then fell asleep on the way home. Hopefully he'll do okay the rest of the day.

Growing up

2007-03-28T09:42:00.000-06:00

Since my boys keep growing up :( I decided I should start to blog in order to keep a record of it. This is my first real blog, so bare with me as I learn.

Chaetun will be 4 in less than a week. I can't believe it. Time has gone so fast. He is so big and getting really tall. But he's a skinny thing. It's a good thing there are adjustable pants since in order to get the right length, we have to tighten the waist A LOT. He's been going to school this year and loves it! His teacher is Mrs Perry and she is great with him. He tells me everyday after school about his friends Caden, Austin, and Isabelle. He really likes Isabelle, but I don't think he really knows about girlfriends yet. We'll keep it that way :) He's learned a few things from school this year. He knows all of his letters by looking at them and knows the sounds for most of them as well. He went into school already knowing his shapes, colors and numbers, though he doesn't recognize his numbers yet. He has learned how to count to 5 in spanish as well as some of the colors in spanish. The last few weeks we have been working hard on writing his name. He has struggled a little bit (he IS only 3) but I think we finally got it. He was having a hard time getting the "U" but it finally clicked last night. He's so excited because when they are able to write their name at school they get to pick a treasure. It will finally be his turn.

Chaetun is also in Sunbeams this year. He really enjoys going to Primary, mostly because he gets to see his friends. We moved in February but continue to go to our old ward until our house is built. So, this is the only time he really gets to see his friends.

Xadun will be 2 on Easter. He is such a cutie!! Though he's not quite 2, he can talk quite well. I'm guessing that's because he's around his older brother so much and wants to be able to communicate with him. He is often heard saying, "Momma. I had good nap." He says this several times a day whether he just woke up or not. Xadun LOVES to play with his big brother, "Chee-tun". He has also just recently discovered Brekan. He was always good with him, but didn't really acknowledge him. In the last month or two he has started saying "Hi" to Brekan and gets so excited when Brekan smiles back or talks back to him. He loves to give hugs and just talk to him. Xadun is in the nursery at church, but has only been a handful of times in the last 6 months. We had a rough winter this year when it comes to sickness. Xadun seemed to be constantly sick this year. He seemed to catch everything, even when the rest of us didn't have anything. As soon as one sickness was over, within days he had something else. Most of this illnesses caused ear infections. We had to put tubes in in December. Unfortunately, he continues to get ear infections. We had an allergy/immunology work up done because he never seemed to get better. The tests came back negative for any immune system problems, so we don't really know why it is all happening. After we moved we had a good 6 or 7 weeks of wellness. It was nice!! He is sick again, though. I'm hoping this time it's just allergies and we can manage it through the spring and summer.

Brekan is doing great. He's still small for his age, but I love him that way. I love having small babies for a long time. He's 6 1/2 months now and doing really well. We spent about a week and a half in the NICU after he was born. Despite being part of a research study where I received Progesterone shots weekly and getting steroids at about 32 weeks, he still came early and had lung problems. He was on a ventilator for a couple of days and then a CPAP for a couple more days, but his lungs seemed to recover quickly, at least compared to Xadun. Brekan's lingering issue was eating by mouth. But we got that fixed and brought him home. Chaetun loved on him from the beginning, and as I said previously, Xadun was just indifferent until recently. In the last month or so Brekan has started to get to that fun state where he is all smiles, talks and laughs with you. He can almost roll from his back to his front, just has an arm in the way :) His back muscles finally seem to be strong enough to let him sit up and not fall forward and not be able to get back up. He also just started eating Oatmeal cereal yesterday. I tried giving him rice cereal about a month ago, but he was not at all into it. So, I gave it a rest and tried again. He likes it this time. The only bad thing right now is his aversion to sleeping at night, at least by himself. We haven't had a good nights' sleep yet. I know part of that is due to our living circumstances and he doesn't have his own room and we can't let him cry. I am hoping to get this issue resolved soon. I could really use a good night's sleep.

Brothers

Chris and I are embarking on a new journey as well. We have recently bought 3 Anytime Fitness franchises. It's scary but exciting. Chris is very excited. The Anytime Fitness gym is a 24 hour gym that requires little staffing. It will allow us to be business owners, without the headache of most businesses. We created our own S-corp called XSclusive Fitness, Inc. and I am the President. That means I get 51% of the shares and Chris, the treasurer/secretary gets 49%. It really means nothing except that I am a female business owner and hope that helps in some ways.

They have finally started our new house. Yay. I will do more blogs on that as it progresses. We are excited to hopefully be in there by November.