The things are gone but the lives were saved.

Here are a few pictures that we took the day after the fire.

Happy 40th Dad and Mom

Happy 40th anniversary Mom and Dad! I love you both and wish you many more years of love now and in the eternities!

Chelsea's play

This play was originally suppose to happen last Monday night, but because of the snow day, it was rescheduled to today. Chelsea did really well tonight in her play. She said her part well and sung all the songs well. We are so proud of her. She a fun kid.

Our ward Christmas party

This is Makayla and Merrit in one of the parts of the program that we had for our ward Christmas dinner. This part was about the symbols of Christmas and Makayla was the candle and Merrit was the evergreen tree. Makayla also played a caroler in a small play and Alexis and I had parts in the 12 Days of Christmas song. Lexi was the three french hens and I was the eight maids a milking. Hannah was also in the 12 Days of Christmas. She was the seven swans a swimming, but she only had six swans on her poster (it was little funny). She was also the color red in the symbols of Christmas portion. The dinner turned out great and everyone did pretty well with their parts. I think it was a good mixture of fun and spiritual.

Another snow day!

Yeah! We have another snow day today too! The roads are covered in ice and it's too cold for the salt to work so the kids and Charlie have another day off. I had to go to class lastnight. It was my last one for the semester. I had a group presentation to do, otherwise I probably would've skipped because I hate driving on ice and snow. We did well, though, I think. One of our group didn't make it because he was stuck in a ditch. He was O.K., but it made things a bit interesting for me and the other guy in my group. I'm just glad to be finished now for a few weeks. Yeah!

No School

So all schools in our area have closed (except Flint) and our kids are pretty excited (Charlie and I are too). We love snow days at our house. The storm is pretty bad and not over yet. I'm glad they canceled school. It wasn't fun to drive in to get to church or get home from church either. I prefer to stay nice and warm when it gets nasty outside, and now I get to. Yeah!

Up Date

Shelby has had some more testing done. We have found out that she is allergic to cats, dogs, rats (mice), strawberries, garlic, pork, and eggs. I think that is all. So now we have to find new homes for our two cats :-(( Shelby is very upset about the cats she has been close to tears more than once about it. There has been one cute thing about this. She said that Grandpa would be happy about the pork because he would get all the sausage now. She loves sausage and would fix it for herself and Grandpa.

Now for the cute thing that Michael said the other day.
On the way to church for tithing settlement I was talking to him about paying his tithing. I told him that he was to pay tithing on the money he received for loosing his teeth. But instead he had spent all of his money on hot wheel cars. He informed me that he really likes them and just wanted to get them. My response was "Yes Michael but you should have paid your tithing." Michael answer (he was very serious)"I guess that the care are dragging me down to hell." I had all I could do to hold it together. Sabrina cracked up and could not help but laugh. I informed him that I wasn't sure the cars would but not paying his tithing would help him get there.

Kids can say the darnedest things. Got to love them.

We have a Wolf in the house!

Bradyn has been a Cub Scout for 7 months and he has already earned his Bobcat and Wolf Scout badge. His leaders keep them really busy and on the ball. Bradyn loves going to scouts so, that is a good thing. At his pack meeting last week, not only did he earn his Wolf, but he earned many many more achievements as well. I would name them, but I can't remember all of them off hand. We are very proud of him and look forward to helping him earn many more badges.

Pinning his mom!

Bag full of achievements!

WAY TO GO BRADYN!!!!!!!!!!!

Our busy weekend

Yesterday we raked leaves. All seven of us raked for about 5 hours and we raked up most of the leaves in our yard, but not all. It was very tiring, but the kids got to enjoy the massive pile we built when we called it quits for the day. They had fun, and they deserved that. They worked hard (most of the time).

Today was our primary sacrament program. It went really well. I was so nervous about it, but the spirit really filled in and helped the kids. I'm so glad that is over with. Now we just have to prepare one song for Christmas and it's going to be "Away in a Manger." I'm glad about that because they know the words already. We are going to teach them one of the old versions from the old orange primary song book. It should be fun.

Happy 80th Birthday

We sure love you!!

Some Halloween Fun

My 4 awesome kids!

Logan got his face painted at our church party

Parker, Audrey and Les fishing

Audrey and her little friend Matilda

Our little Ballerina posing

Actually Crafty?

I made these super cute hairbows....yes, me can you believe it :)

Halloween pictures

So Alexis was "autumn", Merrit and Jaxson were ninjas, Makayla was a wind fairy and Chelsea was a midnight fairy. We had lots of fun, but I'm glad it's over now.

Trunk or Treat

On Friday the ward had their Trunk or Treat and this was the first time that I have participated in such an event. I bought some candy and decorated my trunk with a few items that I had at the house. Next year I am going to decorate my trunk more then I did this year. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Results

Dr. Yost said that there are no disabilities!!!! She tested average on everything. The doctor also noticed how much different she was from the first time she met her. The allergy testing showed that she is allergic to milk (cow) and wheat. We need to find out how to change things about the wheat because that is is everything. BUT WE ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK!!!!! Many people at church have noticed how much calmer Shelby is and how she can set during sacrament.

Man I feel so much better. Now that I KNOW what we are working with it will make things easier. The testing also showed high BUN/Creatinine Ratio and Potassium,Serum which both have to do with kidneys, so we need to get back with the doctor to see if it is because she has had kidney problems or is there something going on now that need to be checked out.

Sabrina is looking at a house just a couple of doors down. It needs a lot of work but she can see potential in it. Now they need to work out an agreement. We will see how things go. It is a small 3 bedroom house with no basement. Most of the floors need replaced because the woman had a dog and did not let it outside. IT STINKS!! The livingroom floor needs replaced because of the dog, at one time there was nice wood floors. The kitchen, dining room, and bathroom floors also need to be done. I'm looking forward to working on it if she gets it.

We Have Been BLESSED!!!

To bring everyone up to date first. Shelby has been a handful since day one. During her 3 1/2 years with me I have been trying to find someone to help us out. Our prayers have been answered. (In the Lords time not ours) At the beginning of October Shelby met with Dr. Yost. She specializes in children with disabilities. At that first meeting she told us that Shelby was allergic to dairy products but she wanted to test her more so nothing would be missed. (She knew this just by looking at her and knowing she had problems when she was a baby with formulas) We instantly took her off dairy products and you would not know our Shelby now. There is not the yelling and screaming that was going on constantly. She now holds onto my hand to walk home, she even talks to her Grandfather. In fact this morning she even asked to curl up next to him as they were setting in the love seat together. WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL!!!!!!! Should have gotten my camera out but I was just enjoying the sight I was seeing. I was also thanking Heavenly Father in my heart for what I was seeing.

Shelby was tested on Thursday for disabilities and allergies, by Tuesday evening we should have the results of all the testing. Then we will know what we need to do and where we can get her added help if needed.

What a wonderful blessing we have received. I wish all of you could see it. My heart is so full with thankfulness. I wish I could explain how wonderful things have gotten around here. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Dr. Yost has told us that because some of her actions she have came from food allergy and some of them are now habits that will take time to change. I'm so thankful that the Lord has sent us here so we could help us get the help Shelby needed. I will try to post on Wed. to let you know all of the test results.

Random Picture #3

No words are necessary. Actually they probably are, but the beauty of this picture leaves me speechless. Hahaha.

Here are the pictures...

These links will take you to the slideshows for the pictures that go along with my previous posting.

Family pictures

Halloween

Baby goats

Fillin' Ya'll in

So I have some news to catch up on...
All the girls got hair cuts a couple of weeks ago. We all went shorter, some more short than others as you will see in the photos. The photos are our most recent family pictures. We had Hannah (thanks again, Hannah!) come take them for us at a local park on yesterday morning. It was an absolutely beautiful day. I'm so glad we decided to take the pictures on that day. I just wish the kids had been glad too. Our sons gave us the most grief. I was hoping that because the kids were older that it wouldn't have been so bad, but I was wrong. They acted like we were torturing them. I can't say that I was too excited when we were finished. But I'm glad we did it. I think we have a few good pictures out of the ordeal.

Charlie received a new calling last Sunday. He is the young men's president again. Our good friend, Dan Bachmeier, took his place in the bishopric. They other

counselor was replaced also. It was about time for him since he'd been in for over eight years. Although Charlie will still be pretty busy, I'm glad he has a change and now I get to sit by him in church again.

We have new baby goats. Two of them came on Thursday night and the last one came on yesterday morning. They are all girls. We were hoping for all boys. Oh well. You get what you get. The first two are doing really well. The last one isn't doing so good. She doesn't want to seem to eat. We've spent the day today trying to force feed her. It's been so fun, not. I really hope she catches on soon otherwise we may lose her. We decided to name them girl names, beginning with the letter of the alphabet their birth order dictates. So the first one in Annie, and the last one is Candy. I haven't decided on a "B" name for the second one yet. I kind of like Barbie or Bambi or Beauty. Any suggestions? I don't have pictures of the kids yet. Every time I think about it they are sleeping. I'd like to get pictures of them standing so you can see them better so I'm waiting.

We had our annual Halloween party on Friday night. We had the most people their than we have had any other year. It was lots of fun. We were sorry that not all the sibblings could make it for one reason or another. Maybe next year.

Makayla has begun playing the viola and Merrit is playing the trumpet. They are pretty excited about it and I'm glad they are wanting to try new things. I just hope they stick with it since the instruments aren't that cheap.

Charlie interviewed for an assistant principalship at Beecher last week. He hasn't heard if they have offered the job to anyone yet, but we are pretty sure he isn't going to get it. Out of all those interviewed, he was the only one without his masters yet. Plus, his current principal was running the interviews and the next day the principal told Charlie he was disappointed in the way Charlie has answered questions and that he didn't correlate all of his leadership positions in the church with being a principal. He told Charlie he wanted to help him fix it so he would do better in his future interviews. Although Charlie wasn't happy that his principal was disappointed in him, we both feel that this was a great learning experience for him and hope that it will help him get a job more easily in the future.

And, so, it's late and I really don't want to take the time to download all the pictures right now, so I'll try to do that tomorrow. So, stay tuned...

Halloween Party

Punk rockers from the 80's

Going to a Halloween Party at Charlie and Hillary's!!

Happy Birthday Logan!

TODAY HE TURNS THE BIG 5 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!

HE GOT SO MANY FUN PRESENTS

FOR HIS DAY OUR FAMILY WENT BOWLING!!!! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

We are so lucky to have Logan as a part of our family. He brings so much joy and laughter and almost always has a huge smile on his face. He loves spiderman and the power rangers. He started Kindergarten this year and has been really enjoying it. Happy birthday Logan and we love you so much!!!!!!

I'm the Cool Aunt

Chelsea and Jaxson came over on Friday for a sleepover. As most of you know my house is not an exciting place for little kids, but I was able to keep them entertained by watching a couple of movies. Here they are relaxing and enjoying the movies.


I enjoyed having Chelsea and Jaxson over and am feeling rather loved because they wanted to come over. We had pizza for dinner but they were most excited about the ice cream sandwiches for dessert and the popcorn during the second movie. I was anticipating having little bodies in bed with me, but thankfully they slept the night through on the couches in the living room. The one downside is that they get up early and I don't. 7:30 came to early for me. I loved having Chelsea and Jaxson over and look forward to the next time they spend the night.

Legs

Random Picture #2

YES!!!!!!!

I just checked the Michigan Department of Education website, and guess what it said? I am now officially certified as a Michigan teacher. It is about time. Doing a happy dance in my house and Kelly is looking at me strangely. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

Old/New

This is our bathroom downstairs that Charlie and Hillary worked on. (Thanks so much!) There seems to be so much more room now. Thinking about getting something to put by the toilet for storage of towels, washcloths, tp and ect. There's not much room under the sink for storage.

Les did the painting.

Yes I can see you in the mirror.

Now all I need is the curtain rod for the shower and a shower curtain. A course I can't just go out and buy the rod because of the shape of the shower so I hope to get it ordered tonight. Now when my mother comes I can buy a chair to put in the shower so she can get clean. No stepping into a tub it will be easier for Grandpa Hicks too.

Kira wedding pictures

Here are a few pictures of Kira's wedding.

Blake and Kira Boswell.

Jackson in his tux.

What a cutie.

All of our family that was able to be at the wedding.