ABC's and 123's

Today was the first day of school for both of my babies. I say babies but in reality they are both so very grown up. It's weird it makes me sad and happy at the same time. I think back to when Shilo was ice skating in the kitchen with nothing but a diaper on, with a whole bottle of lotion spread on the tile, or when Chase who could barely walk and only say a few words, walks into my bedroom with a clean diaper opened up on his head and says "I a butt head!" Those are the memories that make me miss the baby years. But at the same time I watched Shilo shave her legs, put make-up on, do her hair, and worry about which shoes matched the best with her outfit, and Chase gather up his book bag, looking ever so handsome, and sit patiently by him slef waiting to go into school with not a worry or a care in the world, and these remind me of how grown up each of them are. Chase is in 2nd grade this year at Academy Park, and Shilo started Jr. High at Bennion. All day long all I could think was Shilo must be in third period by now, oh looks like its about Chase's lunch time, and after school when i picked them up Shilo had story after story about her new school and what pleased me the most was after about 4 or 5 different stories she simply mumbled under her breath "I love this school." While Chase was quietly waiting exactly where he was supposed to and jumped up at the site of my jeep coming around the corner, waving his hands and looking so happy. I have a feeling this is going to be a great year, and even with the long homework nights, the forgotten books, the driving to and from school, and of course dont forget the calls from the pincipal's (c'mon it's my kids lets not kid ourselves) these kids who are growing up so fast will amaze us all I'm sure.

Shilo at the Shilo Inn Downtown!

As many of you know Shilo just had her 12th birthday. Yup, that's right birthday number 12. WOW...that makes me old. For her party Shilo and I decided to rent a room for the night at the Shilo Inn downtown Salt Lake, and have a few friends spend the night with us. It was so much fun. You know when you plan a party for a little kid, say about 5 to 10 years old, you have to be there, to run the games, lead the present opening, and say "It's cake time!" Well when a child is not really a child anymore but more of a pre-teen, they really don't need their mommy there to have fun :( I forgot how teens will plan what they want, when they want, and for how long they want. She had her cousin Haily, and her best friend from elementary, Anna, come to stay with us. They swam for about 4 hours before returning to the room starving. Then they ate us out of room and hotel, haha, and decided it was present time. Shilo was so very respectful to her friends, thanking them time and time again and saying how much she loved her presents, they were just perfect. I wanted to mention that part, because maybe, just maybe I had a little something to to with that when raising her. Then it was time to beat the pinata to death, and I mean to death. But they made there own rules and stated who would go first and what would happen next, it was actually nice I just sat back and took the pictures and laughed at how freaking grown up they all sounded (at times anyway).

Now this is the real scary part, I waited up for the girls to come back from the swimming pool for the second time, until 11:00 p.m. Then I fell asleep waiting, does that mean I'm old? The girls finally came back to the room around midnight, and I got up and talked with them for a bit until they found a movie they wanted to watch on TV. They proceeded to watch this movie as I, yup you guessed it, fell back to sleep. Then next morning the girls told me they stayed up until about 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. oh I remember those days hehe.

Surprisingly enough the girls were up and ready to go down to the restaurant and eat breakfast by 9:30. It was a lot of fun we all went to the restaurant in our pajamas and talked all during breakfast about how excited they were for school to start. Being as they are all going into 7th grade, it will be new and exciting for all of them. After breakfast the girls wanted to swim again of course, so we had enough time for a short swim while I worked out in the gym.

So all good things must come to an end, and this fun filled birthday night had to also. We checked out of the hotel and proceeded to take the girls home. Oh, but this is not the end, no way. Then whole way home, in the back of the jeep, which did not have the roof, the girls played a game called "Sweet or Sour". The rules of this game are simple, you wave to pedestrians, bikers, motorcyclist, or motorist and if they wave back they are sweet no problem, if they ignore you or give you a dirty look they are sour. And let me tell you, you do not want to be the sour one to three 12 year old girls in the back of a topless jeep. They yelled, they screamed, they laughed, and they had the best times ever. And I think I did too.

An Update on Baser...

Well Clint took my little man to the Dr. this week. There was good news and bad news. The bad news is that to tests for this Celiac Disease it is not easy. You can not simply test the blood or anything like that, you would have a serious of internal test that would have to be completed such as a biopsy of the intestines and such. However, the good news is that the Dr. did not recommend these tests right away. Because of the fact that Chase only gets his stomach aches right before bed and in the morning when waking up, he thinks this may not be a digestive problem, as we digest all day long not only every 8 hours or so. His diagnosis to us was that Chase may have a childrens form of IBS due to stress and worries. And this kid does worry. I dont know who told this kid that he must be concerened about every single person around him before himslef, but we will need to work on this. So for now the Dr. says to shoot him full of fiber, to help cleanse him out, and go from there. If the stomache aches lessen then we will work on some stress releivers. Who has stress at 7 years old anyway, that boy has no idea what stress is! And if the stomache aches get worse or stay constant then we will have to take him into a pediatrec specialist. So we are not out of the woods completely, but we have at least found a trail to follow....

I'm so scared...

For the past month I noticed Chase has been complaining of a stomach ache frequently. At first I simply ignored it, chalking it up to not wanting to clean his room, or go to bed, or do something not fun. Until two weeks ago when we were at the Bee's baseball game and again he was complaining. Realizing that I'm sure he didn't want to leave a baseball game, so something must have really been bugging him and sure enough that night he threw-up. So I decided to start to pay attention to these pains, and found that it was usually right before bed and early morning when he was woken up. Again about a week later he vomited, and once this happens he seams fine. So I thought to myself this can not be a stomach flu or 24 hour virus. My first thought was maybe an allergy. I called my good friend a fitness trainer and dietitian, to ask about food allergies. Now she also happens to have a 15 year old son who has diabetes since he was 5, and after this past year of having Shilo diagnosed, I know how much teaching and learning is involved in this process. Anyway, she mentioned a disease called Celiac Disease. Of course I ran to my computer and instantly googled it. Chase has 3 of the 7 symptoms and it runs in families who have a history of diabetes. For those of you who may not know Celiac Disease is when your body can no longer absorbe anything with gluton in it, such as wheat and bread products, malted drinks, most powders and pastes, sauces, sausage, and even some potato chips. The only treatment for this disorder is to eat completely gluton free food for the rest of your life (this would not be an easy task). At least with Shilo having diabetes, although it is hard and daunting at times, she can eat whatever she wants she just has to account for it and correct it. There is no correction for this. Well I called the Clinic and they gave me a list of foods to try and keep him from eating for a week or so and see if his belly aches go away. If he has this what will we do...I'll tell you what we will do, we will be bringing our own food everyplace we go :( I am thankful that my kids are generally healthy but why would this type of thing happen to two kids in one family? Why do my babies have to be sick?

July 24th Pioneer Day

Today we spent the day relaxing and chilling out by the pool. Since it has been so hot here lately and we all had the day off, the kids and I decided to head out to the Kearns Olympic pool.
There is a giant 500 gallon bucket that sits on top of this huge platform...once you hear the warning bell start to ring you have about 5-10 seconds to either get out of the way or feel the wrath of the water gods!Chase is such a lady killer, look at those abs. He wont admit it now but someday he will know just how handsome he is. Watch out girls he is a heart breaker for sure.

I always knew that he was part fish... and this just proves it.

This is so funny, you cant tell in this picture but in about 3 seconds chase knows exactly how it feels to have a monsoon crash down on you HEHE.

You may be asking, why all the pictures of Chase where was Shilo...does this answer your question. Unless you are super fast with the camera you can never catch her. You will see her when you get there and when its time to leave and the rest of the time you have to be fast or you'll miss it.

I told you she is the craziest person ever, never keeps two feet on the ground!!!