Justin is truely a miracle!

Happy 4th Birthday Justin!

My brother Steven and his wife Kim were married the end of August 2003 and 4 months later learned they were expecting a baby. Six weeks into the pregnancy my sister-in-law Kim thought she was miscarrying and the went to the ER to find out that she wasn't having a miscarriage but they thought she might have colon cancer. The next day they went in to do a biopsy that came back positive and she did have colon cancer. They didn't have time to look around for a doctor and they needed to have it removed immediately. The chances of her surviving were pretty low and we all knew that the pregnancy wasn't going to last. I didn't have any nieces or nephews and I was dying to be a aunt. I was also pregnant with Faith and was an emotional wreck. I was so sad for my brother who just got married and told that he might lose his wife who was only 21. After lots of prayer and fasting they were able to remove the tumor and put her on Chemotherapy which made her extremely sick and weak especially on her body a tiny 90lbs. Doctors were amazed and shocked that she was still pregnant. She kept going into labor and they were able to stop it and she stayed on bed rest in the hospital. On the last day of June she was in so much pain and her water broke (she was only 30 weeks pregnant) they had to life flight her to Primary Children's hospital where they had to knock her out and give her an emergency c-section. My brother was not allowed to be in the room and early in the morning July 1st my nephew Justin was born weighing a BIG 4lb. He had 2 collapsed lungs and stayed in the NICU for almost 8 weeks. During the c-section they also checked where the tumor had been and found she was cancer free. They now have another child, a beautiful daughter Natalie who turned 1 April 12, 2007 and Kim is doing great!

I love Justin so much! He is so funny and loves to wrestle and can basically beat the crap out of Luke even though Luke is BIGGER and a year older. Happy 4Th Birthday Justin we love you!!

We Went Swimming Everyday...

Faith and Lauren are seriously hilarious. They do everything together. Faith is really bossy and Lauren does whatever she says. It is so funny! Faith even bosses Halle around. Faith wanted everyone to know that she is Sharpay and Halle is Gabriella. (from Highschool Musical) Halle would just be a nice big sister and go along with what she said even though her favorite is Sharpay.


Halle and Luke were so fun to swim with in the big pool. Halle thinks she is a professional swimmer. She has had swim lessons but is still learning. I would make her take in a noodle just in case she needed to grab it. Braden taught her how to swim better and made her do crazy things and she loved it. She is a brave girl! Luke who is getting braver decided half way through our trip that he would get into the big pool with us but he would not take off this blue tube. Surprisingly he would let us throw him under water even in the deep end with the blue tube attached. He tried to make friends with everyone in the pool and I could tell some adults would get tired of answering all of his questions. He is a chatter box!


Here is Luke again with the blue tube! Funny story....I was needing to go to Walmart so I decided to ask Luke to go with me. We look forward to weekly trips to walmart in Pocatello.
MOM: Luke do you want to go to walmart with me?
LUKE: NO!
MOM: Why? You love going to walmart.
LUKE: I don't want to go.. I will stay here at the condo.
MOM: Please Luke. It will be fun!
LUKE: (starting to get upset)I'm staying!
MOM: Actually Luke everybody is going. We will hurry it wont take long.
LUKE: (breaking into tears)I don't want to drive all that way.
MOM: Luke it's just over here..(as we are driving he notices walmart)
LUKE: (wiping away his tears with excitement)It's just over here?
MOM: Yes! Did you think we were going clear to Pocatello?
Luke this whole entire time thought we were going to drive all day to Pocatello to go to walmart and then drive back to St. George. It was so funny and sad at the same time. You should have seen his sad face.


Lauren and the pool she almost drowned in.


Cute Faith and Lauren!

What We Did...

The Sunday we were there we decided we would go to the St. George temple and go see the Joseph Smith video. I had never seen it and it was really good. I love this temple! My parents were married here. My mom grew up right outside Las Vegas, Nevada in a place called Overton/Logandale. Every year we would come visit my grandma during our Easter break and would have a huge Easter egg hunt up in the red sandy cliffs. I remember the 1st time we had a Easter egg hunt in the grass in Idaho and it was cold. I remember HATING it. I love St. George! In some ways it feels like home. Luke didn't want to leave and he kept asking if we could live in St. George. SO CUTE!


This is Hoover Dam near Las Vegas. I really wanted Braden to come see this dam. He had never been there before. I really wanted to go inside the dam but with the kids we knew it would be difficult so we just drover over it and took pictures. We also heard it cost $25 a person to go inside the dam. When I was little my mom said it only cost a 25 cents a person and they would take you through the whole dam where now they only took you part way. You must see this dam!


Here is the new highway they are making over Hoover dam. I will NOT be driving over it when it is done. My picture doesn't do it justice. It is extremely high. I guess the reason for building it is so that terrorist will decide to bomb that instead of Hoover dam.


Braden's mission companion lives in Las Vegas. We went over to there house to have a BBQ and swim in there pool. We took the kids that night to Kung Fu Panda. I love Las Vegas but I forgot how spendy some things can be. A movie ticket cost 10.50 a person and we even had to pay for Lauren who is only 2. Plus we had to pay to park our car as well as treats to make the kids happy. This is a picture of Braden's mission companion and his wife and kids. It was so much fun!


This is a random picture of Colorado City, Arizona. We accidentally came across here while sight seeing. We actually wanted to go to Zion's national park but the kids were fighting and we didn't want to pay to drive around if the kids were going to fight and cry so we decided to drive outside the park. Just a few miles maybe 30 miles out of Hurricane, UT we came across Colorado City. We were wondering before who would live in the middle of nowhere and out of reach of anything and everything that's when we came across Colorado City and I remembered this is where the polygamist live. We drove in and everywhere we looked we saw the people and kids in those long hot clothes. All the houses aren't finished and they all have brand new pickups with tented windows. I have seen enough Oprah's to know they follow you and they have cameras all over so we decided to leave. All the houses are in these cement fences.

Our Summer Vacation

Really Fast...I just want Braden to know how much I love him and I think he is a fantastic father and a great provider. I wanted to do this earlier but we were vacationing. Thanks Dad for taking us on a fun family vacation!! This picture was taken on Father's Day at St.George in the condo on our way to church.


Here we are getting ready to leave back home. Our babysitters Sarah and Danielle (my sister) you guys are awesome! Thanks for helping Braden and I with our kids. We had a fun time going on dates and spending time with you guys as well. We love you!



We decided to take a trip to St. George for our summer vacation. Braden's grandpa Polatis has a condo up in Green Valley. We knew we wanted to get away from the cold and be somewhere warm. Braden had the idea of bringing babysitters with us so we could go out just the two of us in the evenings so we decided to bring my sister and her friend. We just wanted it to be relaxing and fun with our kids. It actually didn't start out that great. We arrived in St.George about 6pm and it was 98 degrees when we got there so we put on our swimsuits to go swimming (the condo has a fun swimming pool and kid pool) our babysitters had my 2 younger kids Faith and Lauren as we walking down to the pool. I went to go set up our towels thinking that they knew not to leave my kids alone even in the kiddie pool. I turned around and realized that Danielle and Sarah (babysitters) were in the big swimming pool. I turned to look in the kiddie pool and my 3 younger kids were in there and Lauren (my baby) is drowning I run over to her and she had been struggling then she stopped. I am panicking!! I grab her and she's blue and her eyes are kind of open but she is not moving one bit and I almost pass out because I can't believe this is happening. I know normally what to do in these situations and I know CPR but when it is your own child you are not thinking clearly at all. This BIG man ran over because he could see I was freaking out and he grabs her and starts slapping her on the back...he puts her down to do CPR but right as he turns her over she throws up water and was struggling for air this felt like eternity. It took her about 2 minutes before she could actually take deep full breaths of air. I just held her close to me in shock. Braden arrives and I start crying my eyes out probably for about a hour. This was a tiny kiddie pool and Lauren can even stand up in it but she must have fallen forward and couldn't get her feet back on the ground. I had to give my sister and her friend a big talk the next day when I wasn't so upset and I was thinking more clearly. I told them that the kids needed to be watched at all times. They felt really bad and were so sorry I don't blame them I actually blame myself because I should have talked to them before about what I expected from them. After the talk they were amazing babysitters and we were glad we had them come. I would recommend any family going on vacation to take babysitters. Braden doesn't know how to do CPR and I need to re certify so I decided we will go and do this because you never know when you might need to use it.
Scary start to our vacation but we ended up having a fun 9 days. St.George would get up to 104 degrees. We swam everyday! We came to just relax and do what the kids wanted and that was swimming. I love swimming so I had lots of fun. Braden likes to swim but was also happy coming to the pool and reading. He also had fun teaching Halle how to swim. It's sad coming home but fun knowing we have all summer to play together before school starts again.

Congratulations, Halle!

We received the news by mail this afternoon that Halle is the newest member of S.E.I. show team. She was so excited to open the letter and read it. She soon after called her daddy who was so excited and proud of her. (I wonder how long that excitement might last after he comes home and sees the bill and we can't walk away because I signed a contract:) It looks like she might get to perform either at Disneyland or Disney world. This is Halle the day she tried out...Lucky #3!!

Dance Dance Dance!!

I wish I knew how to post her performances. We have been very busy with dance these last couple of months. With dance class, performances every week, S.E.I. try outs, rehearsal, tap and ballet's big performance, gymnastics as well as a gymnastic performance. This picture was the last night of performances and we were all ready (including Halle) to go home and go to bed!! Now we are just waiting around to see if Halle has made show team. I'm getting nervous about her making the competition team because I know that means I will be even more busy then already. I guess I better get use to it though. Having 4 kids especially 3 girls means life is going to get CRAZY! Now that I'm on the subject of my girls.....does anyone else go crazy when they see there daughter's in makeup? It gives me a little look into there teenage years and it scares me. Anyone else agree?

Memorial Day

program Memorial Day 2008


2008


2007


2006


2005 This is the first digital Memorial Day picture. The kids have changed so much over the years and yet this picture feels like yesterday.


We have a little family tradition every Memorial Day we go to Aberdeen's cemetery to commemorate the sacrifices of the soldiers. They have a little program that usually last 15 minutes and then we visit and decorate family graves. Every year we get the same pictures of our kids with Great Great Grandpa Bus and Grandma Faye Driscoll and Great Great Grandpa Loraine and Grandma Grace Duffin. Halle Grace is named after Grandma Grace.