In His Blood

This kid was born to play football-
Braydon's team is currently undefeated for the season. They only have 1 game left and then they will have playoffs and the Championship game. We're pretty sure that they'll be playing in the Championship game. All but one of their games they've played have been 50-something to 6 or 0. The game they played last week was actually a pretty tense game. The other team got to score first and it was back and forth until about the 4th quarter. In the 3rd quarter (and some of the 4th), Braydon's team managed to put about 7 kids on the other team on the sidelines. One of the kids broke 2 bones in his arm. Another kid broke 2 ribs (Braydon sacked that boy. Oops!) They ended up winning 50-20. I almost lost my voice after that game. It was worth it though. I love watching these kids play!! My mom and dad actually got to make it up to that game. Didn't get pics though. We were too into the game to remember about the camera.

Here are a few pictures I got of Braydon during one of the games and just afterwards. I love to hear the coach talk with the boys after each game. He's been an amazing coach and I hope that we'll be with him each year to follow. He does a great job keeping things positive for everyone and encourages each kid alot.

Such great experiences for Braydon. I don't know if I'll be able to stand watching him when he's playing college ball or maybe even pro's. I already can't stand it if he's hit and ends up on the ground. He's tougher than I think though. Like I said, he was born to play football!!

A New Knee

This is my Grandma. Grandma Ruth Edstrom.

She had surgery last week to replace her knee that has been bothering her for sometime now.
The boys went to a friends house for a sleepover Friday night and so Justin and I took the girls and decided to go pay Grandma a visit before she left the hospital. My Aunt Lorie was there also and so we spent some time visiting with both of them.

She was having a good day the day we visited. The previous day, though, was rough on her. Her blood sugar levels had dropped and really messed up her blood pressure. She didn't feel good until they gave her 2 pints(?) of blood. She said that she was actually up and walking some the day we had come.

My aunt told me that Grandma was actually the first one at EIRMC to have a signature knee replacement. Signature, meaning custom made knee. They did up molds of her knee and made a new knee that fits her body just like her old one would have fit. She's hoping that she's back to herself in the next few weeks. It could be a few months before she's out skiing again though (ha, ha).

We're glad we live close enough to Grandma Edstrom to see her more often though.

Love you Grandma!!!

Unusual Sleeping Habits

This is how Justin found my girls the other night:
My kids are all pretty wild sleepers. They each talk in their sleep and they are very good at walking around in their sleep. The girls have a hard time remembering each night were the bathroom is. They wander around and if Justin and I are awake, we usually take a few minutes and laugh at how funny they are before showing them were the bathroom is.

My kids have been caught dancing with plungers, trying to brush their teeth with soap, crying that the bathroom is gone, opening up closets to find who know what and a whole list of other very entertaining things. I really should go to bed with the video camera by my bed for all of these said occasions.

For now, we'll just have to laugh at pictures of these two silly girls and their sleeping habits.

TOFW Boise 2010

What a fun weekend!!!! I attended the Time Out for Women Conference, put on by Deseret Book, in Boise this past weekend with my wonderful mom and sister! We all got up early on Friday morning, and I dropped Carson and Kaylee off at a neighbors house to make sure Carson got to school and Kaylee made it to dance, and then I headed to Tremonton about 8:30 AM to meet up with my Mom. Nick worked a few hours on Friday and was home in time to get the kids from school and be home when Kaylee was done with her dance class. They also headed up to Tremonton to do some painting on another rental house. My mom and I drove together from Tremonton to Boise and got into town around 2 PM. We met up with my sister and her two friends, Lynette and Heidi. We did some shopping and then all had a pedicure at a salon in Boise. I think it was called Y-Lin. It was so fun and very relaxing, especially with the massage chairs they had for us to sit in! Here are some pictures from our fun day! My mom enjoying soaking her feet.
Heidi, Enjoying some much needed pampering!

Marisa and Lynette enjoying their time away from their kids!

After the pedicures, we went to Fuddruckers for dinner. Yummy!!!! (They have really good turkey burgers there!)

After dinner, we got settled into our hotel, The Grove, and got ready for the Friday Night session of TOFW. The hotel is just around the corner from the conference center it was held at, so it was really convenient. Friday Night, Amanda Dickson and Ardeth Kapp spoke, and we had musical guest Jericho Road perform. They were SO good!!!! And Amanda Dickson was wonderful and VERY funny!!!

Mom is a HUGE fan of Amanda Dickson and during the break, she found Amanda and got a hug and autograph on her book.

She even took time to pose with me for a picture!

After the Friday session, we enjoyed chatting before heading to bed for the night. Oh, and we took a picture of how cute our toenails were after our pedis. Fun, huh?!?!

Lynette and I got up early on Saturday morning and got a workout in at the hotel before getting ready for the Saturday Session of TOFW. We hear from DeAnne Flynn and Emily Freeman in the morning, with musical guest "Mercy River". We really liked them. In fact, mom bought their CD! They were super cute! In the afternoon we heard from Jill Manning and Kris Belcher. I haven't laughed so hard in the longest time as I did when we heard Kris Belcher talk. She was hilarious!! She had cancer and lost her eye sight 7 years ago and has an amazing story, but has a very funny way of telling it and it was such a delight to hear her speak! The theme for this years TOFW was HOPE. It was a great topic and I learned so much and got a renewed energy of hope to take home with me! The best part of the weekend though was spending time with my mom and Marisa. I only wish Tiffany and Natalie could have been there too!!! Maybe next time! Because I am sure this won't be the last girls weekend we have!

While I enjoyed my girl time in Boise, Nick did a lot of painting and the kids attended a track meet with Grandpa and even spent Saturday at Hogle Zoo with Matt, Nat, and Hallie. Then spent the rest of the evening with them until Nick and I picked them up around 10:30 Saturday night on our way home for the weekend. I think we all had a great weekend! Thanks again to every one for making this weekend so fun and memorable!

Weekend Work!

We have been spending the last few weekends in Garland working on some of our rental houses. We are in the middle of putting new siding on two of them. Carson is such a good little worker and was so excited to go and help dad two Saturday's ago to pull off the old siding.
He did a good job picking up nails, moving boards, and sweeping off the gunk on the side of the house.

It is going to look SO much better with the new siding! We had one tenant move from one of our houses to this one, and then we rented out that house to a new couple. But we still need to paint, carpet, and side that house too. So there is still a lot of work ahead of us!

This last weekend, before we headed up to Garland to work on the houses again, we stopped at the PTA Woods Cross Elementary Fund Raiser....a Movie Night! We had a hot dog, drink, and some candy. We hung out for a bit and visited with friends and enjoyed the cool weather that evening. We didn't get to stay for the movie, but the kids had a blast while we were there.

Carson picked NERDS to eat for his candy...he has never eaten them out of a big box, so I had to explain to him how to use the box to eat them. He thought it was pretty cool!

Kaylee LOVED the hill we were sitting on and spent some time rolling down the hill over and over again!

It was our first official Elementary School function we have attended since Carson started school. This is going to be so much fun having a kindergartener!!!! We made it up to Gma & Gpa's house in Tremonton by around 9. We slept over and did a bit of work on the houses and met with the new tenants and did some other things we needed to get done up there. By the time we were done that morning, we were starving...so we all headed to Pizza Plus for the best pizza and breadsticks. Carson requested that is were we go, and none of us were going to object! We normally just order it and take it home to eat, but it was fun to eat it there for a change. It is always fun to spend time with my parents!

While we were waiting for our pizza to be cooked, the kids were playing with some of the arcade games, and Nick noticed one was jammed, so he stuck in his pocket knife and wiggled it to get it unjammed, and about 4 dollars worth of quarters came out! So they used it to keep the kids entertained the rest of the time we were there on the Flinstones ride!

Maybe by the first of October we will be done with the houses, and we can just sit back and relax for a bit! But I am sure there will be something else that will require our attention, let's just hope it is closer to home!

A Lesson from Grandpa

My boys had the chance to spend the day with their Grandpa. It was kind of like Christmas in August for the boys. Grandpa came up on August 24 to teach my boys how to fly fish.

Let me tell a quick story first! I hate fishing. There is nothing that excites me about fishing. There was a time that I went with my dad, my grandma (my dad's mom), and my two sisters. We hadn't been out very long when my sister got her line stuck on a log in the middle of the river. I figured I'd be able to get it unstuck, no problem. Well, as I pulled, the pole managed to get me into the water. I thought I was going to drown. Water was rushing all around me and over my head. My dad rushed over to save me and grabbed my arm and said, "Stand up Marisa." I did as he said and realized that the water was not quite up to my waist.

My grandma, being the good woman she was, took me to our big, orange, ugly van (used for carpet cleaning at the time) and told me to take off all of my clothes so I wouldn't get sick. She wrapped me up in a blanket and I spent the time in the back of the van. We did get to go through the drive thru at Arctic Circle on the way home. I decided after that, fishing isn't much fun!

I don't want my boys to have those same feelings towards fishing. Justin isn't a big fisherman either. When my dad said he wanted to take my boys, I figured that would be a good thing. My dad likes to fish and doesn't do it often enough. He was usually coaching one of his kids in some sport and since my littlest brother has left on his mission, my dad doesn't have any kids to coach now.

He came up with some poles, vests for the boys and spent the afternoon teaching the boys what fly fishing is all about. He started with how the poles go together and all the different parts to a fly rod.
Then they had to head out back and practice casting (if that's what you call it). It took them awhile to get the feel of what they were suppose to do. They looked pretty good though.

It took lots of coaching from Grandpa but he was good with the boys and had more patience than I would have had!

Justin got home as they were practicing. He's only been fly fishing once, I believe.

Grandpa had to also teach the boys about the different flies and what they were all called.

They didn't go fishing that night. Braydon had football practice and so they left early the next morning. Like 5 am early! They headed up to the Driggs area. Grandpa said that the boys actually didn't do too bad. Austin really got the hang of it. Braydon still needs to learn more patience to get better (good luck with that one!) They took my camera so they could take lots of pictures. As you can see, I got no pictures from that day. They also got no fish for the day!!!!!

NOT ONE FISH!!! They even went during lunch to find more flies to see if there was something else the fish wanted. They just couldn't find the right flies for the fish. They saw tons of fish during the day. They were a little bummed about coming home empty handed. They blamed it on the full moon. They also found out later that flies with yellow on them would have probably worked. Oh well. This just gives Grandpa an excuse to come up and take the boys fishing again.

I was actually glad they didn't come home with fish. They would have wanted me to cook them up for dinner and I'm not a fan of eating fish either. Maybe another time!! Anyone with a great way to cook up fish that won't stick up my house, I'm all ears!!!

Lovin' Football

We are into that fun season again. I actually love going to watch my boys play sports. They are both good at what they play. This year, Austin isn't playing. His arm wasn't quite healed completely to let him play. He has been very sad about that. It was killing him that first week or so that Braydon went to practice and got his pads.

Braydon has a very good coach. He isn't a screamer and has done a good job teaching the boys LOTS of plays. He does a good job getting each kid a chance to play but he also believes that if you work hard and prove yourself, you'll have more playing time. Each kid has to earn their spot on the field. Braydon is learning that he can't slack off or some other kid will be playing where he wants to play.

Braydon is the teams kicker and he does a good job with that. He spends time playing on both defense and offense for most of the game. He loves to tackle other players and I squirm everytime he does. I hope that we don't have any injuries this season.

Braydon had his first real scrimage on Saturday, August 21. It was a jamboree and he played 2 games that morning. His first real game was Saturday, August 28. They won 30-0. The next game they won 54-6. They really are a good game and play well with each other.
Braydon is the only green shirt in this first picture. His # is 66.

Braydon is the far right player.

My silly Madison!

Grandma Brower came to watch his games. After the games, she took Madison and Kenzie school clothes shopping. It was a fun day with Grandma!!!

I've decided it's pointless to do your hair if you live in Idaho Falls. The wind blows so much and it doesn't take long for your hair to look like a disaster!

Should be a fun season if the boys play as well as they have the last couple of times!

A Bigger Family!

We decided that our family was not finished! We found out for positive on August 12 that a 6th child would be added to our family sometime before April 21, 2011. We told the kids this past Wednesday night during our family prayer. Justin made a request that I would be taken care of during this pregnancy. I watched all of the kids raise their heads up and smile at Justin. Then they looked at me at started to laugh. Justin quickly finished the prayer and all of us started laughing and kept laughing. Madison quickly said, "Dad, come on. You aren't suppose to lie. Tell the truth. Mom isn't pregnant. She isn't even fat! She can't be pregnant!" We all laughed harder and I finally told them that Justin was right.

They all were pretty sure that I was going to have a boy! I'd be ok with that since that would mean I'd only be sick until week 12 or 13. The girls thought twins would be fun to have. I'm not sure I'm liking that idea. Time will tell what we're having!

In the meantime, I'm trying to avoid throwing up all day long. I'm taking advantage of any naps I get during the day also. We're all pretty excited around here. I keep thinking we might be crazy to want 6 kids. Then I look at how fun my 5 kids are and think, "One more would just add to all of the fun we have each day!"
Should be a fun 7 more months!!

Plaaaaaay Ball!

Last Thursday, Matt and Natalie invited us to go to an Ogden Raptors game with them! We had dinner at GriDalfo's before going to the game. It was delicious!! We had yummy pastrami burgers and Philly Steak Bomb, with a yummy order of sweet potato fries! Seriously, if you get a chance to eat there, take it! We then headed to the game! We sat in the seat section for a bit before we finally headed over to the grass area and the play ground that was next to it.
The kids LOVED the playground and spent the rest of the night playing on it!

We enjoyed the nice evening chatting and watching Hallie dance and crawl all over the place! She is so cute!!!

Thanks Matt & Nat for the fun! We can't wait to do it again!