Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!

Lenn's lights!

Our tree

Owen's tree.  Owen loves looking at the Christmas tree but he has gotten really hard to move by myself so we put up a tree where he could see it all the time.  He loves it!  Lately he hasn't liked new things coming into 'his' space, but he absolutely loved it when this tree got put up and decorated!

Our talent show:  I think I am the only one who loves this new tradition but it's okay I'm the Mom and said so!  Lenn does not play the piano but he finds a song each Christmas time and figures it out well enough to play it for the talent show.  He actually does a good job.

Bentley had us watch his video of the school play for his talent.

Abby did her clogging dance since her recital was canceled due to bad weather.

I made a video of all our past Christmases.

Abby said Owen's talent was his smile, and he did such a great job sharing his talent!

His new pj's.

Then we did our nativity.  Abby was Mary, Owen was Joseph with his staff, Bentley was a wise man, Lenn was the narrator and I took pictures.

This was probably one of my very favorites about this Christmas!  Bentley always goes through the presents under the tree, shakes them and guesses what they are.  He is right 99% of the time.  It makes Abby and I crazy.  This year I decided I would get the best of him, so I wrapped all the presents from Lenn and I with certain paper for each person but no tag.  Abby was sure that hers were the princess paper and Bentley was sure his were the Mater paper.  Little did they know!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year!

Christmas Play 2012

This video is from the rehearsal.  I went to the rehearsal and Lenn went the night of the play.

In Cokeville, the elementary does a Christmas play each year and the 6th graders have the main parts and each class sings a song as part of the play. 

This year Bentley was Santa Clause!  He was so nervous.  We even read through the play as a family for a couple of family nights.  He did a great job and had his songs and lines all memorized.

Abby's class sang a song about saying "no".  It was such a cute play, all the 6th graders really did an excellent job.

A big thank you to Trevor for taking pictures at the kids' activities he attends!  It is so nice when one of us is home with Owen and don't see the actual thing.  Trevor takes pictures with his 'nice' camera and either Lenn or myself  video.

Catching up on our holidays!!

Yesterday, on Christmas morning I woke up and felt like I could breath again.  It has been a crazy fall!  First Owen got really sick at the end of August, then in October Bentley was gone for a week with his class to Yellowstone and then my Mom was gone for a week to New York.  Owen hadn't been great so I found myself almost holding my breath.  Then the holidays roll around and I find myself holding my breath again, hoping all will be well.  I apologize for not keeping you up on all the adventures around here. 

I will start with Thanksgiving and try to do a little catch up from there!  The last few years Lenn has started putting up Christmas lights in September and October.  This year all his time has been occupied with building new corrals and following Bentley in sports. On Thanksgiving while we were waiting for the turkey he and Bentley went out on got most of the lights put up.  Good job boys!

Poor Owen has battled this fall with sickness after sickness.  The majority have just been minor colds though and we can manage those pretty well just keeping up on suctioning him.  He was doing okay and then Thanksgiving morning he had a fever and did not feel well at all.  I was going to get him all dressed up for the day but after his bath I decided he could have a pajama day.  It was a good choice because he pretty well slept the entire day.  He is such a sweet boy, even though he didn't feel good he still gave a smile for the camera!!  Love this little man!

We are all inpatient at our house so we decorated the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving.  I used to think it had to be after but not anymore.  I have decided it can be part of the Thanksgiving decor!  After all who isn't thankful for Christmas.

The day after Thanksgiving Owen was much better, no fever and happy as can be.  I got the bright idea to go to Preston and see the Festival of Lights.  We went through Logan so we could stop and put candy canes on Landry's grave and then go on to Preston.

Bentley, Lenn and Abby at the Parade of Lights

We had a rental van that the kids wanted to keep, it had a tv, dvd player and power.  We figured with power we would be safe because we could take Owen's cough assist machine just in case.

Owen stayed in the van with me and we watched the parade and fireworks from inside.  The night was beautiful.  It was cold but not too cold.  Owen loved the parade.  We have found his new love is firetrucks.  He opens his eyes wide and makes his little face that says "I like this".

The we went to the amazing house in Preston that is decked out with all kinds of Christmas.  The lights are amazing.  These are two of our favorites.

Then we headed home.  I was feeling like I was in a perfect dream, both Bentley and Abby were being nice to each, no complaining about anything, the roads were good, and Owen was happy.  I had a feeling that I cannot explain.  Then coming into Cokeville it all changed!  We were still about 20 miles from home and Owen had a mucus plug that I couldn't suction out.  We stopped to use the cough assist machine but again no luck.  We couldn't pull the plug out.  Looking back we may have done something different but we decided to hurry home.  Lenn drove FAST, I continued doing sets of his cough assists and Bentley and Abby helped with whatever was needed.  By the time we got home, which was in record time, Owen was just about gone.  We hurried into the house, Lenn bagged him a few times because his heart was still beating, got him on more O2 then did his treatments.  It wore him out, he was so tired.  I told him he was a little fighter and he replied with a half grin.  I could tell that's all he had in him.  He is definitely our miracle boy.  At the time I questioned myself as if we were doing the right thing, but I know now that we did.

The worst thing about all of this is that Bentley and Abby witnessed each and every second!  They were so brave but so scared of losing their little brother. 

It took a few days of recovery for Owen, but not one day went by without a smile!  That's our Owen!!

Needless to say, Owen will be staying home with real power!!

Back in November

I have always loved music and always wanted to be able to sing but was NOT blessed with a pleasant singing voice.  I have however been blessed with a husband and 2 children that can sing. 
This fall Abby was asked to sing two small numbers and realized that she likes singing.  One number was a duet for the Veteran's Day program at school.  The other was a solo to the first verse of 'Beautiful Savior' in the primary program at church.  After singing in the Primary program she hopes that she gets to sing in all the programs instead of having to have a speaking part.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/53540517
https://vimeo.com/54722128

Bentley's future

I saw this quote by Tim Tebow and had to do something with it for Bentley.  I pray that no matter what happens in his future he will know who holds his future.

After watching conference this last weekend it really made me think how close Bentley is to making decisions regarding his future.  I hope he will always stay close to his Heavenly Father and choose to serve a full time mission.  The new age change from 19 to 18 for young men won't make a big difference for Bentley but for some reason it hit me how close this really is.

So for now I will try to enjoy each and every moment!

Bentley turns 12

It is unbelievable that my little boy is turning 12!  But he did and it wasn't a dream.  Of course Abby had to decorate.  She put streamers and balloons across his door, decorated his chair, put balloons everywhere and made a sign to hang up.  What a lucky boy to have such a nice sister!

Bentley's cake.  I thought by the time he was this old he wouldn't care about a 'cute' cake.  I was wrong and he wanted to challenge me so he asked for a show sheep cake, one that is standing on all four legs!  Yeah, he thought he was funny. Well he absolutely loved his 4-H lamb this year so I figured I would out smart him plus give him something to remember Shaggy.  He loved it!!  I wish I could have captured his face but I didn't think it would be that big of a hit.  He kept asking how I did that and if he could do that too.  He was almost teary eyed but I know I would be in trouble if he knew I told everyone!

Bishop Chadwick, Uncle Bill, Bentley, Miles, Grandpa J., and Lenn

The Sunday after he turned 12 Lenn got up and said lets ordain him today.  We had been talking about when we should do it but Lenn felt like we should do it that day.  Oh my, talk about last minute phone calls!  Some of Lenn's family lives close by so they were the only ones to make it on short notice. 
One week after turning 12, Bentley was able to go with the ward to the temple and do baptisms for the dead.  What perfect timing!  Now he is passing the sacrament and growing up way too fast.

Bentley and Lenn



Owen and Bentley



Uncle Bill and Bentley.  They share the same birthday so when

they have lived close we celebrate together.



Aww..feeling much better!!

When Owen gets sick I always worry but do what I can to get him well again.  It isn't until afterwards that I realize how sick my little guy was.  I guess that's a good thing because otherwise I may not have my head where it should be!

The last part of August Owen got sick, I thought he was pretty sick but nothing we hadn't dealt with before.  I figured it was sinus, ears and throat yuck.  I called his angel of a doctor and she called in meds for sinus/ear infection.  The fever went away and he was back to room air.  After 4 or 5 days on the antibiotic I knew something wasn't quite right.  I called his doctor back and she wanted a culture.  Well...if you know us at all we are anti 'go to the doctor or hospital' with Owen for obvious reasons. I made a hundred phone calls (it seemed like 100 anyway) and figured out how to get a good sample from his trach and sent Lenn to Evanston to take it to the lab.  We were supposed to hear back in 48 hours, I sat around all day waiting for the call and nothing!!  I was a bit on edge because I knew he needed something else and the weekend was coming.  The next morning I got a call from his doctor.  I knew it wasn't something simple when I got a call instead of email.  She said the reason the current antibiotics weren't working was because he had pseudomonas...what??  Pseudomonas is a sickness that effects the weak, old, burn victims and those with trachs and catheters.  I did a little reading on this and it didn't sound very promising but his doctor reassured me that it was common in trached kids and it was okay!  I had to keep re-telling myself that.  From what I read it is very common for these kids to be hospitalized with this sickness.  Thank goodness for yet another blessing of staying home.

This morning as I was bathing Owen and getting him ready for the day, it hit me just how sick he really was.  His secretions are so much less making him much less gooey!

I don't know why or how but this little guy is still supposed to be here with us.  I don't understand it and I probably never will but I know he is in the Lords hands and we still have our little Owen.

I know many prayers are said on our behalf and we appreciate them so much.  Thank you!

Yesterday Owen sat in his recliner longer than he has in a long time and we went to Bentley's football game and we didn't suction him once! YAY!!  When he was at his worst with this we were suctioning him constantly. 

I have mentioned previously that show sheep are now a big thing at our house.  Grandma J saw this stuffed lamb and figured Owen needed a show sheep too!

Fair week 2012

Rich County Fair 2012

One of the flower bouquets I put in the fair.

Abby and Lenn shearing and getting Leap ready for fair.

Lenn and Bentley shearing and getting Shaggy ready for the big fair.  Bentley picked out Shaggy by himself and from day one he told me he was the best lamb and was going to win something.  Thinking that he had a great lamb he put a lot of time into Shaggy getting him to set up, stay put and press.

He had him so trained that he even ate set up. 

Abby and Leap in Jr. Showmanship.  The judge said she was the most natural showman in the ring.  Not bad for her first year.

Bentley and Abby in Showmanship.  Abby is in first right now and look at that grin.  She couldn't stop grinning because Bentley told her all summer that he was going to beat her and we teased him that Abby was going to beat him!! 
(There's no competition around here!)

Bentley giving his best to get in front of Abby.

The judge making his final decision.

Bentley Grand Champion Jr. Showman and Abby Reserve.  Great job! 

Abby with her back pack and ribbon.  She said "Mom, all that time really did pay off!".  This picture says it all about how she felt about it.  Bentley got an overnight bag and ribbon but the picture didn't turn out.

Abby showing off her poster.

Bentley's poster.

I love this picture because I could pretty much read her mind.  "It's okay Leap, I love you anyway."  Her lamb didn't do well in market so it crushed her a little.  We had a hard time getting this lamb healthy this summer.  I think it was healthy the last three weeks before fair so we knew he wouldn't do that great in the market class.  Abby did a great job showing him though.

The judge making his final decision in Bentley's market class.

Bentley takes 2nd, he was a little bummed.

Showing Shaggy.

Being a little bummed didn't last long though.  After his class was the champion drive and he took Reserve Champion Market Lamb.
Great job Bentley.



You wouldn't know he just got reserve champion lamb!  This is Bentley though...all business.  I was trying to get a group shot of everyone there to watch but I couldn't get every one to cooperate.  The ones there to watch Bentley and Abby were Grandma and Grandpa Johnson, Grandma Walker, Aunt Marjon and her boys and of course Lenn pacing as he watched!




Abby, and cousins waiting to go see how Abby's exhibits did.  She did a colored pencil coloring that went to state fair.  She got her free admission ticket in the mail.  She is pretty excited and wants to plan a trip down to the State Fair.

Thanks to Cal-Ranch for buying Shaggy.



Abby selling Leap. 

We had a great fair this year.  Bentley and Abby both did great and are ready to start on next year.  Abby says she loves showmanship but hates market!!  Bentley is really liking this showing sheep business.  They have both bought sheep to put with Lenn's show sheep herd, so that is really all that gets talked about at our house!