HI

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. So much has happened in the last year and a half.

I started working as a 3rd-grade teacher at Excelsior Academy. I absolutely love it! It is so fun to be teaching these children. I love to see how they grow and continue to learn throughout the year. I love being at the school with Joanie and Hunter and being home with them when they're home. This job has been a true blessing to us.

Ryan continues to work at Wal-Mart. He was on overnights for a while, but then was moved back to days. Days are much nicer for us. We have a bedtime routine down. He has to put the kids to bed, or they don't sleep.

Joanie is 9 and learning so much. She loves her teacher this year. She is in third grade, and I made the request that she not be in my class. I have her 30 minutes 4x a week. This is doable. She is playing the violin and loves reading (I wonder where she gets this from). She continue to amazes me with what she knows.

Hunter is 7 and will be baptized April 7. I can't believe my baby is old enough to be baptized. He too is learning so much from school. He can tell you exactly how your digestive system works, with great detail. He has an amazing teacher who works so hard with him to make sure all is well. He has gone from reading 18 wpm at the beginning of first grade to 89 wpm mid second year. I am so proud of how hard he works to become so smart.

We stay busy and continue to have fun. I really should do more blogging, but I don't seem to have the time.

Family Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation. We started out from my parents on Sunday night and drove to Rawlins, Wyoming. Monday morning we drove to Martin'sCove, Wyoming and looked around. The kids were able to pull some handcarts through a little park. It was really cute to see them pull the handcarts. Hunter said, "This is really hard." I explained to him how what he was doing was nothing compared to what the pioneers went through. They loved pulling the handcart and they each got a "diamond" ring (made from a diamond nail), and a necklace for looking at different buildings.

We then drove on to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD. There we went on a little tour of the site and saw where they were digging for mammoth bones.

After the mammoth site we drove onto Mount Rushmore. This was awesome. Especially when we saw the mountain light up. It was an amazing experience. The kids had a good time and we were able to see a lot.

We stopped in Deadwood, SD and saw my aunt, and then we drove through Yellowstone. The kids absolutely loved seeing Old Faithful. Where as, the post is full of pictures, I'm not going to post anymore here, but suffice it to say, we had a great time, but are glad to be back home.

End of school

I can't believe it's already close to summer vacation. This school year has gone by extremely quick for me. I have to say though, I can't wait for summer vacation! I'm so excited for the kids to be home with me all day. I'm not sure how it's going to go with Ryan on overnights. We're going to end up spending a lot of time at the park. We're also buying a pass to the Tracey Aviary in Salt Lake City. If we buy a certain pass we can get into the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Thanksgiving Pointe in Lehi and a couple of other places. I'm planning on keeping the kids busy during the summer while Ryan's sleeping.
The kids are really excited for summer vacation. Joanie loves school, but is ready for a break. Hunter's is just ready for a break. He has a very small attention span, but loves to learn. They are both excited about our plans for family vacation. We are planning on taking a road trip to South Dakota. We will end up going and seeing Mount Rushmore (Hunter learned about it in school and has wanted to see it since then). On the way back we're going to drive through Yellowstone. My parents are going to go with us. We're going to rent a large vehicle with three rows of seats. That way the kids can be separated and won't be able to fight. We're going to take a week for the vacation. It should be tons of fun. I'll make sure and post some pictures afterward.

I used the spring picnic blog train from stuff to scrap to create this page of our family at a family reunion last summer. I love the colors in this blog train. If you're interested in the freebies follow this link http://craftwithme.typepad.com/craftwithme/. You'll have to scroll down a little bit to get to the links for this blog train. I didn't use a lot of the elements, because I wanted to keep it simple, but here's the page I designed with it. Let me know what you think.

Hunter's six

Last Saturday Hunter turned six. I can't beleive it was six years ago that we brought home a tiny 4 pounds 9 ounces baby from the hospital. Hunter was born March 20, 2004 in St. George, Utah. He weight 5 pounds 3 ounces, but he lost weight before we brought him home. He was so small, but such a breath of life. He was loved from the start by Joanie, Ryan and myself.

Saturday, we didn't really have a birthday party, but our neighbors boys and our children spent all day together. Hunter opened presents first. He received a track, a zhu zhu pet, a Scooby-Doo DVD, a bookcase, a Handy Manny toy and some shorts.

The complete second season of Scooby-Doo.

Handy Manny

His bookcase for his room.

Hunter Rhea, Joanie, Hunter Palmer and Christopher Rhea waiting for cake. Bridger Rhea waiting for cake.

Later that night we took Hunter and Joanie bowling. We invited their friends, Christopher and Hunter Rhea. After bowling we took them to Denny's for dinner. The kids all had a blast. They loved spending all day together.Hunter PalmerJoanie

Christopher Rhea

Hunter Rhea

I can't believe my baby is six. He is growing up and learning so much. I love him so much and he is my happy helper.

New Furniture

Ryan and I were in desperate need of a new bed. We had our mattess sitting right on the floor, no box springs or frame. RC Willey was having a great sale on a bedroom set. We were able to get a new bed, dresser and night stand. I am so EXCITED to have it. Here's some pictures of it.

I'm so excited for the bed. I have wanted a sleigh bed since Ryan and I were married, and now I have one! We went from a king bed to a queen bed. The kids are disappointed because we told them they could no longer climb into bed with us. We only got one nightstand with it. Can you guess who's side of the bed it is on? The pig should give it away. It has two drawers and is great for my books (since we all know I like to read).

The dresser is gorgeous. I absolutely love it. There are eight drawers in it and a beautiful mirror. We gave the dresser we had in our room into Joanie's. She's way excited because now she has a mirror in her room.
Abby

Digital Scrapbooking

My friend, Robyn, has got me hooked on digital scrapbooking. I haven't done much of it in the past, but in the last 24 hours I've completed a few pages. Let me know what you think.

Memories

What makes a memory special? I can think of any number of adjectives to describe what I think. A special memory contains a fun activity, a sad activity but most importantly I think of the person the memory is made with.
Today my best friend from high school is celebrating her ?? birthday. Sadly, I am not able to be with her today. I am in Utah and she is in Massachusetts. But as I've been sitting here thinking of her and the fun and memorable times we've had together there a number that come to mind.
We both belonged to a recorder group that met early mornings before school. We participated in a number of recitals. There was the many nights spent together as we visited and helped one another through rough days. Working together at Godfather's Pizza. The driving too and from together and the many talks we had. Then of course there was the trip to Montana. What good times we had we everyone in the group.
What I remember most is the feelings of love that she always showed me. The help she gave me to get through hard days and times. I don't know if she will ever understand how much she helped me, and continues to help me.
I love you Tia and have a WONDERFUL birthday!

Fun Singing time

Yesterday in church we had a really fun singing time. The kids loved it. We played memory. I found pictures that corresponded with songs from the primary song book and printed off the pictures. Then I put the songs on a paper. I hung them up on the board and went around the room to let the kids pick numbers. When we found a match we sang the song. We have two little Sunbeams and they were so dang cute. We sang "My Hands" and I had them come up and help me because we sang it in Nursery so they know it better than the older kids. The kids had a blast -- as did I!

My silly kids

I was playing If You're Happy and You Know it with Hunter the other day. The kids cracks me up. I'm singing about clapping your hands and hugging your mom. Then low and behold, he says "If You're Happy and you know it, don't listen to your mommy." He wasn't saying it to be rude or anything, he was just being silly. I couldn't help but laugh, because immediately following that was, "I love you mommy."

Joanie is also a silly girl. She has this thing that when she gets REALLY tired she giggles and giggles . . . and giggles. It's really cute. Last night though, she wouldn't go to sleep. She was giggling so hard that she couldn't stop. She was just being silly. One of her comments last night was, "I didn't know that 54+0=54." And then she would giggle like she was hilarious. I finally had to shut my door so she would quit trying to talk to me.

It's really weird to get back on and see it's been six months since I've posted. I'm trying to do better. We as a family are doing well. I'm back to serving in the primary as the chorister, so I thought one of the fun things I would do is when I come up with an excellent idea, I would post it on my blog.

My most recent is for the song Jesus is My True Light. This song is from the December 2009 Friend. It is a gorgeous song and goes well with the 2010 Primary theme.

Anyway, I took pictures from the Gospel art Kits and Friend Magazines and made a flip chart for it. Of course, I'm not the smartest and couldn't figure out how to get it into one PDF, so there are five different documents.

This is the page in the flipchart. If you would like the rest of the flipchart let me know and I will send it to you.

I love teaching primary. It brings such joy to me. I love the kids and the songs. I can't wait until I teach this song in February. Please leave messages and let me know what you think.

Abby

Loving kids

Having the back problems I've had with the car accident has been hard on the kids. It has not been easy for them to not be able to sit on my lap. They have tried to be really sweet about it and help me when I need it.
Anyway, today I was helping out in Primary and they were talking about Family Prayer. They played a game like hot potato, but when the ball stopped on them, they had to say one thing they pray for.
Both my kids warmed my heart and made me feel so good. They both told everyone that they prayed for their mommy's back and leg to get feeling better. It made me feel so good.

Summer Fun

School let out about a week-and-a-half ago. In that time the kids have been busy. They have spent a lot of time playing with the neighbor boys and the other neighborhood kids. Joanie still gets in a tiff because a lot of times she's still the only girl.
A week ago they spent three days and two nights at Granny and Grandpa's house (my parents). They had a blast. Hunter helped Grandpa in the garden, becoming I'm sure really dirty. This was a rough couple of days and nights for me. The second day they were gone I was so bored. I thought I was going to go crazy. Although I was bored it was nice to be able to rest without worrying about the kids. It was also nice to be able to spend some alone-time with Ryan. With a five and six year old we don't get that much time to ourselves.
Hunter had his last two soccer games last week. He scored in one of the games. He had a good time. We need to work on building his stamina. Of course, most of the kids don't have that long of stamina's.
Joanie had a violin lesson on Saturday. She is doing extremely well. Her violin is in the shop right now so she doesn't have to practice that, but she still has to practice her piano (as does Hunter).
Joanie also gave a talk in Primary on Sunday. This is a huge improvement because when we first moved into this ward she refused to give a talk. She wouldn't even talk to her teachers. Of course, with her love of music she sang "Jesus Said Love Everyone" in her talk. It was awesome.
Last Friday I was laying in bed watching a movie with Hunter. Joanie was supposed to be getting in the shower. I kept hearing a buzzing sound, but Ryan was outside mowing the lawn, so I just assumed it was him. Then the lawn mower stopped and I continued hearing the sound. I went into the bathroom to check on Joanie and she has used my clippers on her hair. It didn't look too bad, but I told her it was getting chopped. The results are below.

Although, it's really short, I think it's adorable. She absolutely loves it. And it's really easy maintenance. The great thing is when she wears her helmet for riding her bike she doesn't have to worry about her hair flying in her face.
Joanie has also had a loose tooth for about a month now. Ryan has continued to play with it and try and get it out. I refuse to touch her teeth (I think teeth are disgusting). Anyway, the same day as her haircut she was showing one of our friends her loose tooth and it popped out. She was so excited. Again, below is a picture of her without her tooth.
We had to bribe her to get her to go to sleep that night. She really didn't want to. When she woke up the next morning the tooth fairy had brought her six quarters. She was really excited and we had to run out to Wal-Mart to let Ryan know.
Last night we received a free ticket to go to the Drive-In out here and watch "Monsters Versus Aliens" and "Hotel for Dogs". The kids had a blast. We didn't get home until 1 a.m. and they were both still awake. I was putting Hunter into bed after we got home and he said, "Mom, what about reading scriptures?" I had to explain to him that we would read tonight. We were so exhausted and Ryan had to be to work at 7 this morning. Though we were pretty squished in the front of our car we had a great time.
Our summer has been busy so far, and I expect it to remain busy over the next few weeks. We meet with the director of Excelsior-Academy June 18. He will visit with us and the kids. This is the charter school the kids will be attending this fall. I'm really excited for them.

8's Meme

8's Meme

Jen tagged me for the Crazy 8's Meme. Jen and I belong to a group of mommies in Tooele. Although we've only met a time or two she's an amazing woman and I love her ideas.


Here be Da Rules:
1. Mention the person who tagged you.
2. Complete the list of 8's.
3. Tag 8 other bloggers.
4. Tell them they have been tagged.

Eight Things I Look Forward To:

1. Being able to sit for more than 30 minutes.
2. Going to Australia
3. My children learning how to play the piano.
4. My 10-year anniversary.
5. Going camping for the first time this year.
6. Eating fresh fruits and veggies from the garden.
7. Taking more photographs of weddings.
8. Stopping biting my nails.

Eight Things I Did Yesterday

1. Had an MRI done.
2. Helped Joanie practice her violin.
3. Helped Hunter practice his piano.
4. Had my mom drive me home from her house.
5. Gave my kids hugs and kisses.
6. Ate Shepherds Pie
7. Worked on a crochet project.
8. Napped

Eight Things I Wish I Could Do

1. Be more patient
2. Exercise on a regular basis
3. Go away with my husband.
4. Wear attractive clothes
5. Freelance from home.
6. Not be in pain
7. Go to Australia
8. Or New Jersey/Massachusetts

Eight Shows I Watch

1. NCIS
2. Everybody loves Raymond
3. King of Queens
4. Reba
5. News
6. According to Jim
7. Hannah Montana
8. Phineas and Ferb

Eight Friends I Am Tagging:
Tia, friends from a mommy network.

MRI + Abby = no fun

Yesterday I had to have my MRI done on my back. Now for those who don't know, I'm terribly claustrophobic. Therefore, I had to take medicine to even get into the machine. Unfortunately, Ryan had to work, but fortunately my mom was able to take me to the MRI.
Hunter and I went up to my parents Monday night (the MRI was done in Layton) and spent the night. Tuesday morning I had to wake up early to have take the medicine for me to relax. My appointment was at 7:45 so mom and I left about 7:25 to get to the clinic.
When we arrived they took me right back. Now, this is where I start trying not to flip out. I know having the MRI is the only way to find out what's going on with my back and why I can't sit for long periods.
They get me into the MRI and I try not to scream for them to pull me out. I continue praying and then the thought comes to me, "sing primary songs."
I've been in primary for so many years that I know the majority of the songs, so that's what I start doing. With my eyes tightly shut I start singing primary songs.
I did make it through without having any major problems, no I just have to wait for the results. I'm working on getting into a specialist for back pain. Hopefully, I can return to my normal duties soon.

Life as it happens

Today was Joanie's end of the year barbecue at the school she attends. The kids were able to have their cheeks painted. Joanie choose a palm tree because it's "granny's favorite thing". Hunter had a shark. However, he had scratched it off before I could get a picture of it. He had a funny day today though. I took him shopping at Wal-Mart and he kept telling me that he knew "everything." "I'm a smart boy, mommy," he kept saying. He had the clerks laughing. When Ryan has taken Hunter to work with him they call Hunter "Little Ryan". I have to agree with them. He is the spitting image of his father.
Not much else is going on with us. I'm still probably about a month away from returning to work. Hopefully sooner, but we'll find out more Friday. I go back to the doctor for my checkup. Ryan is staying busy with the garden and the kids and me.

Hunter's graduation and the Garden

We've had some busy weeks. We were in a car accident the end of April. Luckily it wasn't too serious, but I was injured. I haven't worked since. I'm hoping to return to work soon though. I've been in physical therapy and working through it. I'm finally starting to feel better. Ryan finished putting in our garden tonight. It's about 6-8 feet wide by 48 feet long. He planted onions, tomatoes, corn, peas, cucumbers, watermelon, Cantaloupe, peppers and hot peppers. I'm really excited and can't wait for the produce to come in.
Of course, he had a lot of "help". Between our two children and our neighbors two boys he had tons of help. :) The little boy in the yellow shirt is our neighbor, his name is Hunter too. The kids all had a lot of fun. They can't wait for the watermelon to come in.The Garden
Ryan in the garden
Christopher (standing on the swing), Joanie (sitting on the swing), Hunter in orange shirt.


Hunter Rhea helping in the garden


Hunter graduated from the Tooele High School preschool -- as a Baby Buff -- May 11. He was voted the most likely to be the next millionaire because of his imagination. If anyone knows Hunter, they'll agree with this. He had a good year and has learned a lot. He's excited to be starting Kindergarten this fall.



Overall things are going pretty good for us. We are having a ton of fun and are excited for this summer.
Joanie is doing wonderful on her violin. Unfortunately we had to buy a new string. It was loose and I tried to fix it. Yea, I won't be doing that again. She's learning rhythm now and has gotten pretty good at it. She also wanted to start piano lessons again, so I'm putting on my patience and teaching her. She's doing pretty good.
The kids keep us entertained and we have a good time as a family.

Joanie's violin and Hunter's soccer

Again, it's been a while, but here's our update.
Joanie has been taking violin lessons since the beginning of the year. She is doing extremely well. She has learned "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and this week she started on "Mary had a Little Lamb". She really loves it. Her teacher said she has been doing an amazing job. She plays every song three times a day. There are are days she isn't overly thrilled about practicing, but all it takes is a threat to not let her play the violin anymore and she'll practice.
She loves to read and will even read to Hunter when he asks her to. She has been extremely healthy and has continued to be the loving little girl as ever.
She has started coming out of her shell. We had a ward party, that was a karaoke party, a couple of weeks ago. She shocked everyone in the ward when she got up and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" all by herself. It about caused me to have a heart attack. I stood by her and mouthed the words in her ear and she sang them. She then told the primary president that if she could sing a song for a talk she would give a talk in primary. She's been assigned one for the week after Easter. She's going to sing "Family's Can Be Together Forever."
She finishes kindergarten up in a few weeks and then will have all summer to play.
Hunter has started soccer. He's on his friend Hunter's team (it's a lot of fun). Today was his first game. It was freezing and started snowing, but he always had a smile on his face. The other little boy in the picture is the other Hunter. They are our neighbors and the boys see each other all the time.
Other than soccer Hunter has just stayed busy playing and going to school. He only has about 4 weeks left of preschool. He too should have a fun summer.
He also got up at the ward party and sang "Old MacDonald". It was really cute. I was up there with him and he couldn't sing half the time because he was laughing, which in turn made me laugh. Everyone in the ward said it was really cute. Then he also led all the kids in the song "The Hockey Pockey". The kids didn't know it as well, but the adults sure got into it.
He says he's ready to start learning the piano, so I'll begin teaching him shortly. I'll teach him for a year and then he will be able to pick an instrument and we'll get him in lessons. When asked he has said guitar and drums. We'll see what he decides for sure in a year.
We haven't had any other problems with bloody noses, which has been a huge blessing. We are still really careful, but have relaxed some what.
He too is a happy little boy and my cuddle bug. He loves to sit on my lap and just have me hold him. I love that.
Ryan continues to work. Next Friday he is supposed to be going fishing in Wyoming with my dad. He's excited to go fishing for the day. The kids and I will spend the day with my mom. Then the rest of the weekend will be spent (or at least a good portion of it) with my friend Tia and her family. It will be a lot of fun.
We've decided to plant a garden this year. We are going to put in tomatoes, corn, peas, onions and peppers. Then we will get with my parents and freeze and can what we can. I'm really excited for it.
I am doing well. I still haven't felt 100% but have been doing better. I've started writing a little more for the paper, but do that about every 6 weeks. My last story was about a gentleman who wrote a children's picture book. If you want a really cute book it's called "Wet, Bird-Feather Bread." Joanie absolutely loves it. If you'd like to read my story here's the link http://tooeletranscript.com/pages/full_story?page_label=hometown_features&article-Expanding%20Imaginations%20=&id=2129546-Expanding+Imaginations&widget=push&instance=secondary_stories_left_column&open=&. It was a lot of fun to write and then get to design the page for the paper.
I've been trying to get a portfolio of pictures put together so if we ever decide I want to go into a photography business I can. I took my friend's baby pictures a few weeks ago. They turned out so cute. I was really pleased with them. I love taking pictures and take the kids pictures whenever I can.
Not much else is going on. Like mentioned above we are spending next weekend at my parents and with friends. We hope everyone year.

When it rains it pours

This year is not starting out to be as great as we had hoped. In the last post, I posted I was sick. I was finally starting to feel better when we had a scare with Hunter.
Friday night about 11 p.m. Hunter ended up with a bloody nose. Ryan tried for 30 minutes to get it to stop. When that didn't work we ended up running out to the Emergency room in Tooele. After a long wait, we were finally seen. They finally got him to stop bleeding about 1:30. We were given the option of having his nose cauterized or bringing him home. One of the brethren in our ward's bishopric is an EMT and he was at the hospital. We brought him in the room and consulted with him. He suggested we just go home and if it started bleeding again to bring him back in. We took his suggestion and headed home. (On a cute side note, once Hunter's nose had stopped bleeding at the E.R. he rolled over and instead of asking what was going on, he said, "Where's Joanie?" It was really cute.)
Ryan cradled Hunter the whole way home, carried him up the stairs and set him on our bed. As soon as he was set on our bed his nose started gushing again. We tried for 10 minutes to stop it. After it didn't stop we ended up back at the E.R. The doc tried to cauterize it, but it ended up bleeding worse.
Anyway, to shorten the story, they ended up transporting Hunter to Primary Children's Hospital in S.L. via ambulance. It was scary, but we were also blessed. It turned out that one of my friends (thanks Rose) ended up being on the ambulance crew that transported Hunter in. Having someone I know and trust was a huge relief to me, since I rode in the ambulance and Ryan drove the car into S.L. We know the Lord was watching over us and is aware of our needs, because my friend doesn't usually work the night shift, but she was on. I know the Lord did that for me.
My friend was able to put some gauze in Hunter's nose to stem the bleeding. He was able to sleep the whole way into S.L. Once we got to Primary's I was so impressed. They took such good care of Hunter. They were amazing.
My parents came down from Syracuse at 6 in the morning for dad to help give Hunter a blessing. (They were also going to drive out to Tooele and pick Joanie up from our friend's house, but then we were told they were going to release Hunter so they didn't)
Hunter ended up seeing an ENT at Primary's. They ended up putting some sort of sponge-like substance in his nose to stop the bleeding. Once that was done, we headed home.
Ryan and I were both exhausted after being awake for more than 24 hours, but when we got home, we all slept. Joanie was so good and just watched TV.
Although this happened we are still thankful for the Lord for watching out for us. There were many small things that happened that made us aware that the Lord is watching over us. In addition to Rose being on the ambulance, I didn't end up with a migraine after being awake that long, and Ryan was able to stay awake to drive into and back from Salt Lake.

Update

We've been having a pretty good time for the most part.
Ryan has been working hard, and his work schedule will be changing in March. He might end up going to overnights. There are mixed emotions about this. Whereas, I love having him home at night it would be hard. However, we could end up saving on childcare if he did this. His other option might be working on the grocery side of the store. We're just waiting to find out.
I've been sick. I spent three days in the hospital and then ended up taking a whole week off work. I'm planning on returning to work tomorrow, but have a visit with the doctor first. They never figured out what was wrong, so I've just been taking it easy. Ryan has been a great help (like always) and doing whatever needs to be done. The kids have been amazing with the whole mess up of their schedules.
Thanks to a wonderful group of mommies I belong to, they brought meals in for the whole week. It was a huge relief for us not to have to worry about it.
Joanie is still enjoying kindergarten. Her reading has really taken off and she loves to read to Hunter. She is a great big sister. She started violin lessons in January and is doing really well. She's so shy I wasn't sure how she would do with her teacher, who is a senior in high school. However, she's been doing really well. I attend the lessons with her, and she still won't talk to him, except via me. But, she does let him position her how she needs to stand and hold her violin. She's doing amazing. I'm really proud of her. We also signed her up for soccer for in the Spring.
Hunter has be having fun in preschool and playing with his friend Hunter. He too was signed up for soccer. He's pretty excited about being able to play soccer.
Overall, the beginning of our year has been good. We still miss Matthew and his family, but have been blessed in our lives.
We missed mom and dad for almost three weeks when they went to visit Matthew and his family. It was the longest I've gone without speaking to them. However, I didn't want to interrupt their visit with Matthew. The kids and I picked them up from the airport. That was a lot of fun for the kids.
I'm on Facebook, so if you want updates on me check me out there.