Happy 5th birthday to Jackson

Can you believe I have a 5 year old? There's a new LEGO movie out, with a song called "Everything is Awesome" and lets just say that is the theme song to Jackson's life. Everything IS awesome for Jackson! He thought my party- complete with water balloon fight, games, store bought cupcakes, ham and cheese sandwiches, otter pops, and take home water shooters was awesome! He plays so hard and has a hard time settling down sometimes, but he sure was happy about everything! 

Summer swimming!

Summer meant that I was finally feeling a little better. What a difference it makes to have more good days than bad and to actually feel like eating!  Tommie and Dallin loved hanging out with me at my mom's pool. Ya, we were there just about everyday. 

 We signed Jackson up for the 6 and under swim team at carson. He was scared to death the first few days and cried and screamed and kicked me. He said it was just too hard. But then, he realized he actually liked it! He loved to hang on to the lane lines, definitely never swam all the way across, and never seemed out of breath. But, he swam his hardest each race and felt like a winner each time. He loved butterfly and is actually really fast at it. Finally, at his last swim meet, he swam all the way across and realized he could do it!

 Look how big Dallin and Roland are getting! 

what Spring brought us

Written in August 2014

April was another trying month. I am so grateful that for the whole month of April, Shaela made our daily dinner almost every single night. We didn't pay her a single thing, and she would just show up with amazing meals, hot and ready to go. Complete with paper plates. Oh how I needed that and loved her for it!

James was involved with more missionary work and baptized a sweet lady named judy Feathers. We were involved with the fellowship and conversion of Jason and Marina Love- another neat family that  allowed the Gospel to change their lives. 

 We spent a lot of time going to Spencer's basketball games and I grew to love having him around. I needed his help in a lot of ways. Ya, there were hard times and we didn't always handle things the best, but we loved having him be a part of our family. He graduated in May and moved on to BYU, but my boys still miss him and talk about how much fun they had with him.  It really was hard to say goodbye!

Jackson finished up his last year at orange patch preschool. So fun to have him involved with so many neighbor kids cousins.It was the highlight of his whole week and he thrived off all the attention. He was of course very serious at the performance/graduation- the loudest singer, the first to do the actions, etc.

Little Tommie kept continuing to heal and watching him started to get a little easier. Grandma Anderson (affectionately named gram cracker) brought in a meal every other week. Each time she came she had a new ingenious toy idea for him in mind. I love her all the more for each thoughtful gift that he would play for hours with.

Jackson played Tball on the mesa westwood team. He of course was very enthusiastic about it and loved every game. It was fun to have Weston on the same team and we ate a lot of dinners down there at the school field!

James was an "angel" on the stake pioneer trek. He helped pull handcarts up a big hill over and over. He came home wasted and tired- but loved seeing everyone. 

My family was in the easter pageant again which meant great seats for us! Jackson was really in to the pageant this year and the story of Jesus dying.

Remember Jimmer, our crazy dog? We lost him! :( Just at the peak of his breeding- he jumped out of the back of shaela's truck! We never found him again.

In terms of our finances, it still seemed liked the punches were rolling! The engine went out in our Hyundai. Luckily, the warranty covered a lot of the cost of a new one and we had a rental car for 2 weeks.  The fridge died and needed to be replaced. The truck blew a tire. I discovered I didn't have any maternity coverage on our insurance plan and no one would take me with the curent pregnancy. Poor James, he started to feel a little stressed! I'm sure it didn't help that Tommie's and my pregnancy bills were coming in weekly! He found a job opportunity to manage an HOA in Las Vegas. So, he took a trip there to present his bids. And, got a speeding ticket a long the way! :( We still don't know if he got the job or not, but it would be a huge pay increase for us! 

Bearizona

Frist off, happy 27 birthday to James!  Aren't we getting old? 

We just got back from a fun filled weekend to Prescott and Williams Arizona. It was a great getaway for us, we left Spencer home and just enjoyed being with our boys. 

Bearizona was the perfect location for us. Especially with Tommie's current head problems. To spend the day in the car, driving past cool animals, and having them walk right up to you, was just perfect for our boys! Thanks James, for spending your birthday weekend with us!

End of March- start of all our troubles :) AKA- Tommie's skull fracture

March 2014- written in August 2014

After coming home from California, and feeling tired and exhausted. I started feeling sick again. 2 mornings in a row of feeling just plain horrible, I knew I was pregnant again. I didn't even need to take a test- although I did. I couldn't believe it! I thought for sure it would take longer this time, but, my plans aren't always the Lord's plans. And boy was I reminded of that over and over. :) I'll admit i was stressed. I felt incredibly nauseous and Dallin was still so little.  James seemed way stressed the day I told him and just left to work. So, I went walking with Julie. Poor Julie listened as I said "Really? This is what Heavenly Father wants me to do?" But, it didn't take me long to decide that I really am incredibly blessed. I can't imagine my life any other way. I already knew it was another boy and just after we celebrate Dallin's 1 year birthday, I'll have a baby the next month. I am due Nov. 8, but I am pretty sure this baby is coming in october. So crazy! :) 

After finding out about being pregnant, we also discovered the hall closet was getting really mildly. Turns out when the elders were living with us, the shower head broke. No one told us, and between them and spencer, too many showers were taken with a broken head. The water would spray back behind the wall and it wasn't long before the mold took over. We filed a claim through the home insurance, but sure forked over a lot of money and a long repair to fix the walls. 

The end of the month always means we eat sunday dinner out in gilbert. Sundays, James (as ward mission leader) goes to ward council, then the ward missionaries and sister missionaries come over  for a correlation meeting, then we head to church, come back and leave for family dinner. Well, that morning, while I was hurrying to shower, tommie was sitting on the bathroom sink washing his feet. He had plugged the sink and it started to overflow. I was rushing to get out the shower when he stood up, slipped on the wet counter, and fell straight backwards on the tile. He was still screaming when the ward members knocked on the door for the meeting. I was still in my towel and james was running late, but Jackson let everyone in. :) I couldn't get Tommie to stop crying, so carried him and dallin out to the meeting. Eventually tommie calmed down and I held him all through church. I thought all the crying had just worn him out. But, that was one of his first sundays to try nursery. As we went into nursery, someone slammed the door open, hitting him in the head, and the crying started all over. We went home from church, I went to get him a snack and he climbed up next to me not he kitchen chair. He slipped and fell back on the wood floor- starting a whole new round of crying. Well, I rocked him, he fell asleep and we headed out to becca's. Right after eating, little stephen went to play with Tommie and charged into him. Tommie fell yet again back on the tile, smacking his head. This time, he started crying really hard and throwing up. It was then it hit me all the falls he and really had that day and how he hadnt been acting normal at all. We knew he was really hurt and James gave him a blessing. We took him to John Lesueuer's dad- a dr and he recommended we take him to the emergency room. I was sick inside as i realized Tommie didn't have any health insurance that night. When I switched companies, I entered the dates wrong and tommie had a lapse in coverage. Of course, it had to be that night that we didn't have any coverage on him. We took dallin and jackson to my mom's and took tommie to the hospital. He was acting really weird, and I was getting really sick. Both of us kept throwing up in the waiting room, but we were taken in late that night. Through out the night, he had CT scans that showed a severe skull fracture and concussion. But, we were charged with abuse and neglect through the Child protection services. So, all night we had several interviews and questions "why did he fall so many times in one day?" "why didn't we take him in sooner", "where are our other kids", etc. I am sure I looked so sickly. My favorite part is when they asked me "is this your normal appearance?" I looked at myself, 3 am, in pajamas, but hair still kind of nice from church, and said "ya, normally my hair probably looks better, but ya, this is it. :)" I laughed and then the man said. "what about the food on your face?" as I felt my face, I realized that tommie had thrown up (purple gatorade and ritz crackers) on my face and i ran to the bathroom to throw up myself, but and never cleaned off my face! Ha! It was crusty and hard- as I tried to explain to the man he said "you forgot? I am positive i would never forget vomit on my face!" And, then, i forgot that i was pregnant when the skull X-rays started, I saw the sign, and made them stop while I left the room. So ya, I probably did look like a terrible mother. :) They also interviewed jackson the next morning. They asked him if his dad hits him. he said, "uhh...sometimes... but mostly he flicks me in the head..like this..." and then he flicked the interviewer in the middle of his forehead! They also asked him "what do you like to do with your dad?" Jax says "go camping". "Oh fun," the interviewer says, "do you do that a lot?" "No," Jax responds, "we've actually never gone. My dad is always working!" Oh I just about died! 

The whole night was way stressful. Tommie ended up being released from the hospital with instructions that he absolutely can not run, fall, climb, or jump for several weeks. They told me not to let him sleep for longer than 2 hours, and to keep a constant watch on him. The CPS worker followed me home, to see the house, and couldn't understand why Spencer was living with us. i guess saying your inlaws do church work in the dominican republic also sounds suspicious! :) So poor spencer was interviewed to see if he had a "relationship" with me. 

The next few weeks were really hard. Tommie didn't want to sit still and I didn't have tons of energy to follow him everywhere. He slept on a mattress next to our bed and I got up with him and dallin constantly. He would get tired easily, and seemed to get headaches when he played too hard. He had doctor's appointments and the bills started coming in for thousands and thousands. 

Looking back now, I can laugh at the CPS interviews (all charges were dropped) and I am amazed at how the whole thing turned out. I have been fighting with insurance companies to get coverage and bills are somehow getting paid. SO many people stepped in and helped. Little gifts would come to Tommie of things to entertain him for a day, even an hour! Meals were brought in, cards came in the mail. I felt so blessed to have so many great friends and neighbors. My testimony was strengthened that Heavenly father knows ME and knows my own struggles. As Tommie started feeling better, he started getting more active so we moved a lot of the furniture, kitchen chairs, and put several things away so he wouldn't climb. I still wish I could have gotten him to watch a TV show or something- but nope, he still remains my active, wiggly little boy! :)