My Loves

In honor of Valentines I wanted to post some things I love about my boys:

GRAHAM
I love...
....hearing your little shuffle shuffle down the hall that let's me know your coming.
...your sweet smile, slobbery kisses, and chubby cheeks.
....that you are and have always been a good sleeper and cuddle bug.

ETHAN
I love....
.....how well you take care of your little brother.
....your energy for life.
.....your willingness to share with those outside our family.

ZACHARY
I love....
....your imagination as you create art.
....your kindness towards Graham and righteous example for Ethan.
.....that you love reading books together at night and how you remember every detail about what we read.

CHRIS
I love...let's see.....uhm
PRETTY MUCH EVERY THING ABOUT YOU!
You are my world. Just thinking about what you do for me and the family is seriously getting me all choked up as I write. I can't imaging having anyone more perfect for me. The Lord knew what I needed and boy did he come through. Thanks for being an amazing husband, father, friend, lover, etc.

Happy Valentines to all our friends and family. We think about you DAILY!
Make sure your speakers are on.....enjoy!

Make a Smilebox greeting

This link no longer works. Please remove the smilebox and don't include it in the book.

Zach Is Watching His Back

Ethan was trying to send Zach a message.....
a very strong message!

He got it loud and clear.


Actually Ethan has about 10 jump ropes he's had me make into lassos. He was practicing his rustling with all of Zach's friends in the end there was a hanging.

Festival of Culture 2010!

If there is anything we have learned from the Udhailiyah School Festival of Culture is to...

Go Hungry!

The samples may be bite-sized but with 20 tables with 2-4 dishes to try per table you walk away extremely satisfied.

Siti is from Indonesia. She is Sammy's nanny as both his parents work. She is extremely sweet and helped me out quite a bit last year as Sammy is now in school.

It was quite a sight at the Ghana & Nigeria tables with 5 women trying to serve food with these amazing hats. They are stunning but they kinda get in the way in tight quarters.

Ethan and his friend M celebrating their American Heritage.

Chitra, from Sri Lanka, is my newest neighbor; we actually share one wall. They have been on camp for 25 years but decided to move with only one year left. Their old home needed some serious updating, pipe wise, so we get to benefit from that as they are a super sweet family.

This beautiful women is Mrs. Ahmed. That smile beautifully represents what she is like both inside and out. She is originally from Sudan but I believe her family is now in Egypt. She is Sammy's mother. She works full time and is very active in the community. Her SPICY yogurt dip was my favorite of the night. Her husband oddly enough went to BYU. As a Muslim his parents wanted him to go to a western school with the right kind of values.

I thought the Egypt display was cute. The little prayer statues reminded me of the hear no evil, speak no evil, etc....statues.

Gorgeous Mrs. Malik was hosting the Bangladesh table. I just love all the colors in their clothing.

Fuez (Fooez) is in his traditional Saudi attire. He is Ethan's age and equal to Ethan in many ways, I have noted while coaching him soccer.

Ah...the Colombians are so vibrant.
After all the food the children line up by countries in traditional clothing for a parade around the school.

I love celebrating diversity!

Taking Liberties

We arrived back in town from the holidays a few days before our neighbors and we noticed this....

All their brick work had been painted a bright yellow, totally not their style.
Then I looked up and noticed this......

As I looked around the neighborhood I noticed two other trees painted but no others. I assumed they had been marked for something.

In reality their gardener, who also does a house two doors down, decided to paint the trees with curb paint. The other occupants liked it so much he just assumed Donna would too. He was so thorough he did the bricks and half the driveway.

Donna about passed out when she arrive home from her holidays to see all the liberties her (now former) gardener had taken while they were away.

The real irony here is that Donna runs the greenhouse here on camp and is the resident landscape designer for those of us who care.

I am happy to say we have had NO problems with our gardener and that he took wonderful care of our place while away.

Success...We Hope

Why we had to spend 5 hours at the surgery center for a 10 minute procedure is beyond me.

The morning went well considering Graham had been with out food or drink for about 14 hrs in preparation for his surgery.

They had me dress him in a little yellow PJ top and bottom and then put him in a bed with four sides of steel bars. He looked like a littlest prison inmate ever. Unfortunately I was without a camera because he looked so dang cute. After that we had to entertain him in a 5'X10' room for an hour and a half.

The Dr. said the procedure went as planned but a bad cold could easily block up the duct again. We'll just have to wait and see. There is one more option of a tube being put in if this doesn't work.

As he was coming out of anesthesia he was the sweetest cuddle bug every. He did need a bit of O2 at first as his level wasn't as high as it should have been. He perked right up though when he saw my dear friend Debbie bring me lunch. He was soooooo ready to eat (16.5 hrs. no food). The nurses insisted he only eat jello in case of vomiting. I guess orange jello goes down and up easier if one is going to hurl. Anyway, he totally REFUSED to have anything to do with that jello (I am attributing this to our non Utah residency). The nurses then decided mom knows best and to let him have his yogurt instead. He snarfed that down followed by some PB&J. With a very full tummy he was ready to go......and so were we.

I just want to thank my dear friend Debbie again for feeding us, putting us up for the night, driving us, and just plain ole' taking care of us through all this.

Mortified!!!!!!

I've learned two things from blogging
1. It is very therapeutic for me.
2. If I blog it, it doesn't happen again.

Just when I thought things could not get any crazier.....
My son poops "accidentally" at the neighbor's front door!

And this is what happened.

Sweet Nyah invited E to go to the pool. After quickly changing, gearing up, and ready to go he was uninvited only because her parents were going to swim laps and not able to supervise him as well. He was sad so instead I set up the kiddie pool out back to pass the time.

An hour later dry and ready to "rumble" he took off with his tool box in hand to see if Nyah was now home. I tried to tell him it was too soon and I expected him back shortly. Instead I hear persistent knocking and doorbell ringing. Odd, I thought the bell is too high for kids to ring. It was Nyah's older brother saying, "Uh, your son is at our front door with his tool box and he's not wearing any underwear?"

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?

As I head up the street I meet my neighbor who is trying so hard not to laugh. She said she wasn't sure if she should scold him or laugh..... followed by, "Sheesh we would have just taken him to the pool he didn't have to leave a steaming pile on our front step."

As I turn the corner there he is squatting with his shirt pulled over his knees....to cover his privacy. Thank goodness he wasn't flashing people too. We've had a few serious talks about keeping private parts private lately.

I was MORTIFIED! Do you punish, scold, laugh, cry, run?!
None of the above you clean it up and walk away.

Was it revenge? No, he said it was an accident.

Thank goodness my neighbor thought it was funny.....and we do too but not so funny we want him to repeat the offense.

Once everyone and everything was cleaned up Chris and I tried again to explain to E that it's just not appropriate to do that and his response of course was....

Why?

We Are So Tired Of This

Now I must say he RARELY looks this bad. This was the initial flare up with a cold a month ago. I took pictures this time because every time we see the Ophthalmologist he isn't having a severe problem.

Most of the time he looks like this with the medication....a little weepy. We met with the Dr. yesterday and G will have surgery on Sat. morning assuming he does not get a cold between now and then. It is a minor surgery to unclog the duct but he will be put under for a short time. We were also told the procedure may need to be repeated in a few months but as he gets older he should out grow the problem.

Hurray for no more eye drops, eye goop, eye boogers, and eye massages!

That's the plan anyway.