Summer Begins!

We have had a ver busy beginning to our summer. I decided this summer I was not going to buy water park passes and so far we have done more swimming than any other summer we've been here.

Tyler and Brooklynn both had swimming lessons! They did great and Tyler even started learning the Butterfly stroke! He is quite a fish. Brooklynn made a big break through and can now swim without any help at all. She is still cautious, but that is always good in my book. As for Josh, he is insane and has absolutely no fear of the water. I mean no fear at all. Last week we went swimming out at Misty's and I didn't get in, but put him in his water wings (floaties) and let him go for it and boy did he! After he was all warmed up, he decided it was okay to jump off the side all by himself. He loves it. In fact he loves it so much that a couple of days later while we were starting to wind it down, we took off his water wings and before I knew it, he took off and jumped right in the pool. Luckily I was sitting right next to where he went in and jumped in to rescue him. In his case a little fear would be good.

So far the summer has been good, the only down side came this week when, as a result of all our swimming, Brooklynn came down with a little swimmers ear. She is on the mend and we should be back in the pool next week.

Here are a few pictures that I took at Jared and Misty's fantastic BBQ last week! There is also a video of Josh and Justin playing, Josh loves Justin they have become great pals, especially since we have been swimming at Misty's quite frequently. The other day Justin was over and told me that he wished Josh was his little brother. They wrestle and fight and Justin is so cute with him.

This is Brooklynn and one of her 'best friends' Abby

Josh and Justin

Wounded

Sometimes as a mom you have moments that you think, boy that was really a smart move and I had one of those this weekend. Let me expound.

Tyler has been in need of a new bike for a least a year now, probably two. He has had the same bike since he was 3, yes people 3 years old. I know he is almost 8, but he much prefered his scooter so it really hasn't been an issue. Well until last week that is. He was invited to a birthday party for one of his good friends. For the party they were going to go over to the the BMX dirt track for about an hour and a half and then they were heading back over to his buddies house for food, presents, water guns, etc. What better excuse to buy him a new bike, right? So I find him a great bike, we get it home and he rides it for a little. We adjust what needs to be adjusted and I notice he isn't super comfortable on it, but think we will have time during the week for him to get used to it. He honestly hasn't been on a bike in like 6 months because his little one needed the tires fixed. Of course as life would have it, we didn't end up having a lot of time for him to ride it, Josh was sick, and on and on. Saturday morning rolled around and I took him over for the party. I had a little nervousness in the pit of my stomach because I knew he wasn't really comfortable with the new bigger bike. I talked to my friend about it and then off they went. When after the 3 hour party I didn't recieve a phone call I figured all went well and there were no broken bones and no injuries! Well, I was wrong. This is what I found when I went to pick him up........

Ouch right! My friends Logan and Jamie felt so bad and kept apologizing, but what can you do! This is what makes you tough right. So I guess what happened was this - Right after they unloaded the bikes, they had to ride down the hill to the track. Keep in mind I have never been there. Tyler jumps on his bike and starts heading down the hill, he isn't used to the hand brakes on the bike, it is super bumpy, it's a hill, he is on a much bigger brand new bike and WIPE OUT. He lost control, landed on his right butt cheek and then slid on his hip. The scrapes and scratches go down almost to his knee, but that one spot took the brunt of it. He also has some good scrapes on his buttocks and some really deep bruises, but all in all he is good. According to the dads that were there, he was super brave and decided he would stay at the party and watch the other boys. I'm proud of him for being BRAVE and for winning the BEST WIPEOUT of the day. I'm also super grateful it wasn't a broken bone or stitches.

Of course being the mom I am, as soon as we got home I took his bike out of the car and made him get on it and ride it up and down the street. Despite the protests, he did and of course he was just fine!

My biggest challenge this week and until it is healed, is going to be keeping enough water proof tape and bandaids around. He has swimming lessons everyday this week and I'm sure we will be in the pool a few other times as well. He was super nervous about whether or not it would sting when he got in the pool this morning, but all was well.

As a side note, Tyler protested the pictures and didn't want me to put them on the blog, but since this is mostly my journal, I had too. Sorry buddy!

Happy Fathers Day!

I want to say Happy Father's Day - to my wonderful Husband, my wonderful father and my wonderful father-in-law. Also a special mention goes out to Steve's Grandpa, we love and miss you Grandpa Nelson, Happy Father's Day.



In honor of Father's Day and my husband I thought I would do a 100 things list about Steve. We'll see how far I get!...... Here it goes



1. He was born in Pocatello Idaho

2. He lived on Lacey Road when he was little

3. He also lived in Kentucky (I think it was Kentucky) for a few years, when his dad was in the Army

4. He, along with the rest of the crew, lived at Grandma Poulson's house for a few years.

5. He had lots of 'best' friends growing up, most of whom I have met, they include; Matt, Tony M., Tony F., Nate, and JD. This list obviously does not include all of them, but a few of the most mentioned.

6. According to Steve, He grew up on a farm

7. He had a friend in Kentucky who dressed up like Michael Jackson for some event at school

8. He had some totally cool MOON BOOTS and we have a great picture of them

9. He always used to tease his sisters.

10. He still teases his sisters.

11. He played football in highschool

12. He played football at Rick's

13. He almost played football at Snow College

14. He stopped playing football when he hurt his knee right before Tyler was born

15. He can tell you what I was wearing on a number of dates we went on both BEFORE and AFTER his mission

16. He met me, the love of his life, 2 months before his mission

17. He served his mission in Bristol England

18. Most of his time was spent in Wales

19. He had a companion that he had to remind to brush his teeth and sometimes had to force him to do it.

20. He stopped writing to me after about 7 months so he could focus on his Mission

21. He is father to our 3 beautiful children

22. He is a great dad

23. He loves to wrestle with the kids

24. His daughter adores him, even though sometimes he doesn't think so

25. His kids miss him when he has to be gone

26. They always ask, "When will Daddy be home?"

27. He loves to tease Tyler and Brooklynn

28. Josh is also becoming victimized by his teasing more and more

29. He also teases me

30. Sometimes he teases me until I get mad

31. He had surgery on his knee when Tyler was a baby

32. He chopped off the end of his thumb a few years ago

33. He loves the Ocean!

34. He loves to snorkel

35. He is like a big huge kid when we go to the beach

36. He loves the warm weather

37. He loves to Golf

38. He works really, really hard!

39. He is the middle of 7 children in his family!

40. He loves to make his sisters laugh and then when they laugh he wants to make them laugh harder and it just keeps going on and on.

41. He is the 'Funny Guy' in his family

42. He once put one of Tyler or Brooklynn's dirty diapers in his dad's car overnight. His poor dad nearly died from the smell the next day.

43. He is absolutely adored by the kids in his Sunday School class. I get told almost every week, by one of them or one of their parents that he is so loved and that he makes it fun and interesting and they actually learn something from him

44. When Tyler was born he looked just like Steve's baby pictures. I mean I thought I had given birth to my own husband he looked so much like him.

45. Brooklynn looked like Steve when she was a baby too.

46. Don't worry she was still really cute

47. He is very handy around the house and can fix almost anything

48. He is one of the most giving and helpful people I know.

49. He is always willing to help people who need something

50. If he can help it, he never misses a Vineyard assignment

51. He loves to sleep in the middle of the bed. In our bed his side is 3/4 of the bed and my side is the other 1/4

52. If he falls asleep on the couch he is impossible to wake up.

53. One of the youth at church thinks that he is a Cage Fighter

54. He is a very loyal friend

55. He can and will talk to anyone

56. He would go crazy if he had to sit behind a desk all day.

57. He loves to be around people

58. He has really good crap detector

59. He is a wonderful husband

60. His dad always tell's me that he is glad his son married up

61. He loves his family

62. He get super irritated by stupid drivers

63. He is terrified of Snakes
64. If there is a show on TV about Snakes anytime one strikes he Jumps. I mean every time, even if he has seen the show before.
65. Even though he is terrified of Snakes he knows a lot about them and watches lots of snake shows
66. He loves a good bar-b-que and can grill up a mean steak
67. His all time favorite Hamburger is the Royal Burger at Red Robin
68. He likes Sushi, but only the really fresh good stuff
69. He says I can never make a decision, but it is really him
70. He loves to have late nights with Tyler and stay up and play the Playstation until all hours of the night and/or morning
71. He loves to ask Josh questions that make Josh answer 'Yes' because Josh says yes just like Brady and it is really cute
71. When he tucks Brooklynn in at night, he is so cute about chatting with her.
72. When he was a little boy his sister hit him in the face with a Garden Hoe. It messed up his teeth pretty bad
73. He cut his nose with sewing scissors when he was little. You know the part inbetween his nostrils. Yikes and ouch!
75. He has had stitches a number of times.
76. He never sprained an ankle until after we were married and then he did it 6 weeks before football season started. He was playing basketball in the front yard with his brothers
77. He loves to watch football.
78. He loves the NFL chanel
79. He enjoys watching golf
80. He also has a new found loves for UFC (Ultimate fighting)
81. He has been know to order some of the UFC paper view fights and watch them with a friend
82. He loves to swim with the kids
83. He also enjoys taking them to the water park when we have passes
84. He wishes we had a pool
85. Last summer he tried to set up two different quick set pools and found out that are backyard has quite a slope to it
86. He was so disappointed and stewed about it for a few days
87. He loves me so much that he found someone to take out the yucky old hot tub that was in our backyard
88. He enjoyed using the hot tub in the winter, but it was really ugly
89. He doesn't understand why I don't like hot tubs
90. When we go on vacation he loves to explore and try new things
91. He can't stand sitting still for long, unless he is watching sports
92. He really really really wishes we had a bigger TV (I can't say I blame him)
93. He also really would love to have a wii
94. He is a fantastic daddy!
95. He is a great husband
96. He is always great about letting me sleep in, if possible, on the weekends
97. He also makes sure the kids leave me alone for a Sunday Nap
98. He loves to take me out on dates
99. He is very loved by Tyler, Brooklynn and Josh!
100. He is very loved by me!!!!

Happy Father's Day Honey, we love you!!!

Problem Solved......Finally

After months of sleeping and napping issues, I think we (I) have solved the problem. On Monday I was finished with having to lay down with Josh for his naptime. So I put him in bed and told him to stay in his bed or his blanket would be mine. He, of course, had a tantrum and followed me right out the door. When I took his blanket he didn't care hmmmmm obviously not the right trigger for him. Back to bed we went and this time I told him if he got out of bed I would close the door. Of course he followed me right out the door, so back to bed he went and I closed and locked his door. He flipped, 'No Door, No Door,' he screamed through the door at me. I let this go on for a couple of minutes and went back in, put him back in bed and told him that he had to stay in bed or I would close the door. Problem solved, he was asleep for his nap in about 10 minutes. For bedtime I told him the same thing and he didn't even try to get out of his bed. I kept thinking this couldn't be so easy. He even slept in his own bed until about 4 am - that is pretty good. Tuesday, I did the same thing and amazingly enough it really did work. No problems going to bed, other than calling, 'Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!' for a few minutes and then falling off to sleep. Is a little fear all it took? Was this issue over the past few months all over with one simple little adjustment. Throughout the week it has proven to be the key. Now on to tackling the issue of sleeping on my floor for half the night. So after much pondering I said to myself, 'Self, I wonder if I leave his door open and the hall light on if he will stay in his bed all night?' Well, I tried it and sure enough, it worked. This self was right. Yeah!!! Problem Solved. If I had know the solution was that easy I sure would have gotten alot more sleep in the last little while and Julie would have had fewer problems at her house too. Oh well, at least we figured it out. Now if only he weren't sick with a fever.......

Tired!

I am so very tired! I don't why or when or what happened, but somehow, somewhere Josh decided to be a horrible sleeper. He wakes up too early, he climbs in bed with us at least a few nights a week, he wakes up crying and now the latest, he falls asleep in the hall. I know our trip helped create our current situation, but it was heading down this road anyway. To top it off, he was in bed with me last night with some sort of tummy upset/throw up stuff, that while short lived (I think) caused me to once again get very little sleep.

The other night I was so tired of him kicking me, but he refused to go back to his own bed, so in Janet style, I threw a pillow on the floor and kicked him out of my bed. What is the deal? Any advice to help him get over this would be much appreciated!!!!! I really, really, really, really need to get some sleep!!!

Myrtle Beach, SC, Kids Stuff and ........

The Past Few Weeks at the Empey house have been busy, partially not here at all and just more busy. With only 4 days of school left, we have been running around like crazy and trying to get prepared for a long and probably very HOT summer!

First of all I have to tell my Hubby Congratulations as he recieved a promotion!!! Yeah for you and all your hard work, they best news is that it will keep us where we are.

Steve and I, thanks to D&J, were able to go on a much needed, much loved, and much enjoyed vacation. We headed off to Myrtle Beach, SC and it was great! In order for us to have someone watch our kids, we had to head to Utah. Julie, despite her full house and busy schedule agreed to take Josh and Steve's parents and sisters all helped with Ty and Brooks. A huge THANK YOU to them all for all their help!!!

Our Drive to Utah was relatively uneventful, we drove until very late, or very early and then finally stopped in St. George for what was left of the night. After a few hours of sleep we were off again, arrived at Julie's house spent a busy day seeing some of Steve's family, holding baby Maggie and getting the kids taken care of. Once all of that was done we left on a Red Eye flight to Atlanta and then on to Myrtle Beach. Although tired we hit the ground running and Dad and Steve went golfing and Mom and I went to the pool. The week was mostly spent by the pool for us girls, with a few trips to the spa!! And the boys were golfing! We ate at some good restaurants and just had a wonderfully relaxing week. A few of the highlights were our trip to Charleston, SC with a stop at a plantation on the way. The Plantation was really cool and we found out that they used to grow rice in SC, they called it South Carolina Gold. It was all very interesting and neat to see history from that part of the country. In Charleston we went on a carriage tour and I enjoyed every minute. The homes were amazing and the old feel and history was wonderful to learn about. Someday I wouldn't mind going back for more.

Another highlight was seeing some Sharks. We went out to a pier called the Apache Pier and apparantly it is the longest pier on the East Coast. It was just a few miles down the beach from where we stayed. We walked out to the end and the place was crawling with Fisherman. Along the pier they had some sinks so that they could gut and clean any fish they caught. Whenever those sinks were turned on, along came some sharks. We are talking 6 to 8 foot sharks. It was super cool to see them swimming around and they weren't that far from the beach. We also saw some Jelly Balls, which are similar to jelly fish but do not sting, and some Sting Rays. Steve would have stayed out on that pier all day long. All in all it was great.

The Jelly Ball

I Loved this, it looked so cool

The Only Picture I have of me and Steve, I'm not so good at taking pictures without the kids around.

As for the kids, Tyler and Brooklynn had a wonderful time. Ty went to school with Grandma everyday and Brooklynn was able to go a couple of afternoons as well to be the helper. On Friday as Brooklynn says, "We had a Major Lockdown," What does that mean you ask? Well, in case of any threats from the outside or if someone dangerous had gotten into the school they go into lockdown and all the teachers lock their classroom doors and everyone huddles under a table in the corner in the dark. Mom Empey's class was out on the playground when the call for a lock down came, she assumed it was a drill and got everyone settled in the dark, under the table. Mind you she had Ty and Brooks with her this day. After a while she saw a policeman and dog go by her window and she told me she thought, 'Wow, they are really going all out for this drill today!' Of course, it was no drill. Down the road from the school they had a seatbelt check point and when one guy saw it, he abandoned his car and headed toward the school (he was a former student) thinking it would be a good place to hide. He was a little nervous about the checkpoint because there was a warrant out for his arrest. Well, as it turned out it was not a good place to hide and he was soon captured after what Brooklynn has told us was a 'Major Lockdown' She says this with such seriousness and drama that you can't help but smile!

Now for Josh, while cute and adorable as usual, he did not win the champion sleeper award for the week at Julie's house. Julie was most exhausted, but endured her week with my crazy two year old well. After me only being gone for one day he started calling JuJu, Mama. One night, after a mega bedtime tantrum, he laid on the floor in front of her room and started falling asleep, after he had already fallen asleep against her upstairs banister. Since coming home this habit has continued and he has fallen asleep in the hallway twice and at his bedroom door twice, once at 3 am. The only thing I can figure is that he is scared to go to sleep because he is worried I won't be there when he wakes up. As you can tell, I slightly traumatized him by leaving. When we got home and went to Julie's to pick him up, I was so excited. When we went in the house, I scooped him up and started to snuggle him, but he was so sad and his little chin started to quiver and he was holding back tears. Julie came over and he dove back into her arms. I was so sad and feeling mildly guilty that he was upset with me. Steve then took him and he was just fine with daddy, but when I tried to kiss him or talk to him he would snub me and put his nose in the air and not look at me. It was super funny, but of course I cried too because I felt bad. After 15 to 20 minutes we were back on and since then I can hardly close the bathroom door without a freak out because he wants me in his sight.

Josh, three different nights, asleep on the floor

After we picked up Josh we went up to Idaho to pick up Ty and Brooks and to be there for baby Maggie's Blessing Day. It was fun to see everyone, except we missed Katrina and her crew. It was great to finally meet baby Amani and just hang out, even though it was for less than 24 hours. Of course it was back in the car to head home.

Josh loving Amani, she didn't mind at all!

Josh loving baby Maggie, she was really a fan!

Jake, he is so cute

Josh took this picture of Maggie, I thought it was funny!

We really had a wonderful vacation and both felt refueled and ready to come back to Real Life. Only 4 more days of school and then who knows what we will do all summer!