Gabriel's Birthday

Gabriel turned five this year and it was such a good birthday for him. He had his first big birthday party with a bunch of his friends. Gabe of course wanted a batman birthday party, so I made little batman capes for all his friends. Of course it decided to rain on us and so I had to change all of my outdoor activites to indoor, but it turned out really well.

We love Gabe so much, he is such a good kid, he has an infectious laugh and is a smart kid. He is in a tough position being the middle child and the only boy at that, but he is finding his place and starting to stand up for what he wants to do. He loves playing X Box, he could do that all day if I let him, his favorite games right now are Sonic the Hedgehodge Super racers, and any of the Lego Games, mostly Batman. He is a very affection and emotional boy. He is also the most held back of our three kids but almost always the one that gets hurt. He has mastered his bicycle this spring and when he isn't wanting to play X Box he wants to be riding his bike. Its a good thing we live in a cul de sac because Gabe's idea of checking for cars is yelling as loud as he can there's no cars and hoping it is true. One of my favorite Gabe saying lately is when I was asking him to put away his clothes he turned to me and said, "who put you in charge?", I replied I did, I'm the mom and I am the boss, so he said, " well I dont like you in charge, all you make me do is work, work, work."

Gabe starts school in one week, he is so excited for kindergarten, his teacher will be Mrs Jacobs and Gabe will have a lot of friends from our ward in class with him. Grandma Luthy bought him a Transformer Bumbelbee back pack for school and he has worn that everywhere we go. I think this will be great for Gabe, he will love being able to find his place and find out that he is really good at things.

We love Gabe, he is such a special boy. Here is a couple pictures from his birthday and his 5 year old birthday picture.

New Pictures of the kids

I haven't updated the pictures of the kids for a while. Here are some new shots of them as they keep shooting up.

Kelsi 7 1/2

Gabriel 5

Victoria 2

The whole gang

Valentine Tory

Here are a few pictures of Tory on Valentine's Day!

Bat Baby

Gabe is turning 5 next month.... We like to do a big friend birthday party for them on some of their big birthdays, 5, 8, 12, 16... Anyways Gabe decided he wanted a Batman birthday so I thought it would be fun to make little Batman capes for all of his friends that will came over. So Jeff's mom came over last week and helped me get started, she was nice enough to bring her serger and got the main part of the cape done... now I am just finishing the rest of the capes. I got a month left... that should give me enough time.. but I am sewing illiterate.

Anyway while I was making those I thought it would be fun for my girls to have capes because as you can image Batman is played a lot at my house. Kelsi got a pink cape and Tory got a purple cape. Tory has loved her cape, the first time we got it on her Kelsi said she looks like a Bat Baby and Tory immediately yelled out I Am Bat Baby! We tried so hard to get it on video but every time we brought out the camera she found it and said cheese instead.... so here is a couple pictures of our bat baby and the capes I am making for Gabe's party... just imagine them in black and yellow.

Going back to school

Jeff has been pressuring me for a couple of years to consider going back to school. I have been dragging my feet because to be honest I did not know what I wanted to do and I am a little intimidated by the amount of time it will take. Plus I have been so sick of Jeff being in school and all the time that takes so it has put a real sour taste in my mouth. Not to mention the costs involved in going back to school. Well I was laid off of work for the winter and realized that I am so bored! Maybe I am not a good mom but cleaning the house all day long and playing Batman and Lego's just doesn't do it for me and it started me thinking. I am not going to want to work at my current job for the rest of my life, don't get me wrong, I love my job and it has been a huge blessing for me and my family, we need the job and hopefully things will pick up at work soon and I will be able to go back to work. But my kids are getting older, I will be home alone with all my kids at school in 3 years. Kelsi is all ready going all day in 1st grade, Gabe is starting kindergarten in the summer and Tory is 3 years away from going. I don't want to be one of those mom's that falls back on a job they don't enjoy just to make ends work or because they don't know what else to do with themselves. So I applied for financial aid just to see if I would get some money to qualify and start taking some of the general requirements. Well I got financial aid and I got admitted to SLCC, I plan on taking Internet courses as much as I can and for the next 3 years and go part time... When Tory goes to school and maybe if we get out of debt and can pay for preschool a little earlier, I will start going full time to school.
The cool thing about all of this is I found a career path that I want to do and I am really excited to do. The end goal is going to be a physical therapist. It is a long road to take, and I probably wont graduate until I am 40, but you know I am going to turn 40 one way or not so I might as well start learning some stuff a long the way. I have 2 years to get my AS, (associates of science), then I need a bachelors degree, which I am leaning towards Exercise and Sports Science or Occupational Therapy.. then I get to do the physical therapy program which is a 2 year program.
But I think this career path is a great path for me to take, I will be able to be with my family when they are home and I will be able to take care of my family better.
I love my family and my kids and want to be the best I can for them, I know this is going to take a lot of sacrifice and work, but Jeff is behind me 110% and we will find a way to make this all work as best as we can.

Rock Stars

We had some friends over with us for New Years and I think we have a couple rock stars on our hands!

Blessings

I have been debating on if I should post this, I dont like sharing these extremly personal experiences, but I felt that I wanted to remember what happened this night was for us.

I just wanted to share an experience we had with Tory. You all know that we have had problems with Tory and her breatholding / seizures. Well they have been gradually slowing down, always there, just not as severe. So we have been breathing a little easier hoping that she has finally started to grow out of them. On Christmas Eve we had a huge scare with her, she went into one of her breath holding spells which is usually followed by her body going rigid and her being unresponsive, ect... It is hard to explain withoug actually seeing it. Anyways Tory did not come out of this spell. She was completly un responsive to sound, smell, touch anything. Jeff, my Dad, Grandpa Luthy and Blake were all there to give her a blessing. Within a few minutes we decided it was time to take her to the hospital, which was not easy to do since we were at my parents and Idaho Falls Hospital is a 40 minute drive on icy roads with Tory so stiff she could not fit into her car seat. When we made it to the car the frigid air temperatures in Idaho must have jolted her back to reality. She came out of it acting normal but extremly tired of course.

The reason I tell this story, is because I fully believe that without the prayers given and the blessing Tory recieved she may not have come out of it. Me and Jeff fully thought we had lost our little girl that night. I completly believe Heavenly Father was there helping to protect Tory's mind through this episode and to guide us to make the right decisions. I just wanted to experess my love and humilty through this.

We are still struggling to find answers to help her and are still hitting road block after road block with her. Doctors dont seem to want to take an interest in her / dont know what to do. Right now we are waiting to hear back from the neurologist to see if he has any suggestions, but it did not sound likely. So we are back to waiting for her to grow out of it and if this happens again luckly we have a hospital just down the street.

Thanks for all your prayers for out little Tory. If she is like this as a baby can you imagine her as a teenager!