Raider on the Rubicon

Considering that my family seems to be injury prone and people are starting to pick up on that - I thought I would share one more injury story...

Uncle Brian recently took Raider on his annual "off-roading" trip to the Rubicon. Raider absolutely loved it except for one part. At one point the Jeep was leaning way over to the right and Raider actually fell out the side. The Jeep proceeded to tip over and land on Raider's foot - ouch!!! He came home that weekend and was back on crutches with a bruised, swollen foot. Luckily, after a trip back to the foot doctor and some more x-rays - they determined it was not broken.

Either way, I think Uncle Brian has found himself a new tag-along for his Rubicon trips.
On a side note: When Raider made the decision to go on the trip, it was before his friends had planned an all-night video gaming party and before he knew about the Cross-Country team trip to San Francisco. He was telling me he was a little bummed he was missing those things. I asked him if he still wanted to go and would he have fun on the Rubicon trip. And his response was "Of course, it's Brian!!"

Here's Raider getting back at Uncle Brian for dropping the Jeep on his foot.

Is that your bone I see? Why yes it is...

Beware - descriptive content, not for the weak stomach...

Have you ever seen a bone sticking out of a finger? I have! Well, I only sort of looked at it so not completely.

Micah plays goalie in his outdoor soccer league. After jumping to stop the ball in his game yesterday, Micah thought to himself, "My finger kinda hurts." He continued playing a couple more minutes, trying to decide if he was hurt bad enough to go out but since he really couldn't move his finger at all, he took off his goalie glove to examine what was going on. That's when he saw his BONE STICKING OUT of his pinky finger. He quickly took a knee and called out "injury" to the ref. Our friends Grant and Jaime drove him home and we rushed off to the emergency room. (Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa were over so they could stay with the kids).

The emergency room was quite the experience. We actually got in very quickly and surprisingly enough the nurses were very interested to stop by and check out Micah's bone sticking out of his finger. They set him up with an IV of antibiotics and gave him a tetanus shot to make sure it wouldn't get infected. Then they had to cut off his wedding ring for the x-rays. It has been years since Micah was able to get that thing off as his fingers have gotten much bigger - we were thinking he would have to get it cut off soon anyways, so I guess yesterday was the day. They did the x-rays and determined it wasn't broken, just dislocated. So then the doctor have him about 6 shots in his finger (which Micah said hurt the most) and after it was numb she popped the bone back in place. Gross! She stitched up the wound, put his finger in a splint and we were out of there. Today he is in lots of pain - poor thing!

Here is the x-ray... no, the scanner didn't slip, the bones in his pinky finger are completely separate!

Micah has never broken a bone and despite the bone sticking out of his finger yesterday, he can still make that claim (since it was only dislocated)

Raider Boys

Photos of the boys in their new "Raiders" shirts that grandma bought for them. (Of course Raider loves everything that says "Raiders"on it.) These are for you Grandma:

Daddy Daughter Time

Micah has been doing such a great job lately spending quality one on one time with Haylie. He regularly picks her up from preschool and takes her out to lunch and Haylie always says how much she likes going to lunch with Daddy. Last week he took Haylie to see the Veggie Tales show in town. They had soooo much fun. Haylie came home asleep on Daddy's shoulder, clutching her Veggie Tales light that Daddy bought her and wearing her Veggie Tales shirt (which Grandma got for her awhile ago). It was pretty apparent she partied hard as a little Veggie Tales groupie! Micah said she was even standing up and dancing throughout the show. Here are a couple photos from their adventure. Good job Daddy!

Experimental Chef

I have never been much of a cook! However, while I was on maternity leave with James, I vowed to learn some new recipes and get better at making dinner for the family every night. I experimented with new recipes most nights of the week - some of them came out good and every now and then we had to order pizza! One little recipe book I came to love was my sister's Kraft Food and Family Magazine. Today she finally realized I still have it and asked for it back! :( Before I started ditto copying every page I decided to look it up online and I found out it is a FREE publication. In addition, they have archives of all past issues since 2002 stored on their site. I was so excited!!! The recipes in it are so simple and right up our alley, including things like:

Southwestern Ranch Chicken Salad

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken...and the famous Oreo and Fudge Ice Cream Cake (Nicole and I have taken this to several parties and it is always very popular and sooo easy to make)


So if you're looking for new recipes - I would check out the Kraft Food and Family site - you can sign up and receive the magazine free every quarter. (If you google Kraft Food and Family you will even find a bunch of other blogs where people are writing about how much they love the magazine and their favorite recipes from it). I can't wait to get my first one!!!

I Actually Read a Novel

I love to read but for some reason I have never liked reading fictional books. I read to learn. I have stacks of books just waiting to be underlined and highlighted for new ideas. I often feel like novels are a waste of time, like watching a TV show (only it takes even longer). I would much prefer to sit and read a book about raising children, finding my purpose in life, the biography of a real person or even books on photoshop or digital photography.

That said, I actually just finished two fictional books (in a 3-part series). They were SOOOO good I read the first one and within minutes of finishing it, I rushed out to Borders to buy the second (and I have just started on the third).

The Series is called The Mark of the Lion, by Francine Rivers. Here are the books:

The stories were amazing and the characters will make you feel every range of emotions. The main character is truly inspiring and will motivate you to be a better person. For people who like history, it is even interesting to read about the times and the culture in the 1st century, just after the death and resurrection of Christ.

Just note: If you do decide to read the books, the first five chapters (or so) of the 1st book are really hard. I almost stopped reading the book several times and would have if I didn't have a ton of people telling me these were the best books (and if I wasn't accountable to the girls in my book club blog - thanks girls for the great pick this time!!!). :) At first I thought they were out of their minds. But by the end of the first book you will be so thankful you decided to stick it through. I read the second book in 5 days because I could not put it down. I can't even do the books justice with my review. Read them! You will love them!!!

Bangs

After the pain-staking process of growing out Haylie's bangs, we decided to cut them again. They were always in her face and she would never keep her clips in her hair. Note: although it seemed like a really easy thing to do, I did not cut them myself! (It was only $5 to cut bangs so it was worth it) :)

Here are her cute pics - she keeps saying "I like my haircut."

Things I Love at 8 months old

James turned 8 months old this week. Here are just few of the new things he loves:

Eating real food...
(Oh boy does he love to shove food into his mouth!!)

Taking Baths...
(When James was first born he screamed the entire time we were giving him a bath. Now, whenever I go into the bathroom, he tries to dive out of my arms towards the bathtub)

Standing Up...
(Sitting up is so last month. James always wants to be standing now!)

The Swings...
(Ever since Haylie was a baby she was terrified of the swings. She just never liked sitting in them and hated it even more when I pushed her. James is the opposite. He was cracking up, loving the swing - it seemed he had no fear despite how fast or high he was going - he loved it!)

Tooting his horn....
(We were surprised the first time he did this, that he was able to figure it out. But then we figured, after enough times of Haylie blowing it in his face he must have decided it was time to make some noise of his own.)

Haylie's First Sleepover

Haylie's cousin Kiley invited her to have a sleepover at her house. Haylie was SO excited!!! She and Kiley have so much fun together. Haylie has a book called "Thank You God." It goes through various members of the family and says "thank you" for them and why. It's the most perfect book - among the various people the little girl in it is thankful for is her cousin. It says, "Thank you God for my cousin, we have the best sleepovers." Haylie loves that even more now that her and Kiley have had a real sleepover.

It also says "Thank you God for my Aunt and Uncle. I have so much fun with them." This is the truth. Auntie Nicole and Uncle Brian are sooo much fun - they took the girls to McDonalds and even built a fort with sleeping bags in the living room where the girls could sleep.
They made silly faces and even jumped on the beds!!! I'm pretty sure Haylie will always want to go to Auntie Nicole and Uncle Brian's house when she is older because it will be much more fun there!!!
At least they read some books!!! :)
Haylie LOVES her cousin Kiley. She is her absolute most favorite person and I am so thankful they can hang out, play and grow up with each other!

The Little Things - The Catapult Crawl

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault

James -
James has started crawling and we love to see him crawl. Haylie used to do the typical army crawl where she would use her arms to drag her body along. James has made up his own signature crawl and we call it the catapult crawl. He pops his butt up in the air by lifting himself from his knees onto his toes, and then catapults himself forward. So far it seems to get him where he is going but it doesn't always make for the smoothest landings.



Haylie -
Haylie's newest phrase is something that she picked up from us, of course. When we ask her questions she often mumbles or whines the answers, "uh-huh," so we have to remind her to answer the question so we can understand, "yes or no." Now when ever she asks us a question it is followed by her demand for a "yes or no."

"Can I wear this shirt? Yes or No??"
"Can I have a cookie? Yes or No??"

The Circus

Last year, while in Southern California for Thanksgiving with Micah's family - we saw a sign that said the circus was in town. We were so excited. We bought tickets and got Haylie all excited about the show. It turned out to be quite an interesting little version of a circus. It was in a little tent and the animals in the show included dogs and cats. The people in the show were the kind of people you actually think of associated with a circus but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Needless to say it wasn't quite a Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. I never knew there was a difference! So this year when Micah's mom heard there was a real circus in town she called her friend and got a box at Arco so we could all go. Unfortunately George and Sharon had to miss out at the last minute :( - they were really looking forward to seeing a circus that actually had elephants and tigers, etc!

Haylie, Kiley and Eli had sooo much fun at the circus. It was great because they could run around the box and then sit and watch. We even got there a little early so they could meet the clowns and try on the costumes. It's so fun to go to things like this, just to see the excitement and pure glee in the eyes of the kids!

The Next American Idol

I just can't get enough of this girl - I adore her!!!

You Are My Sunshine

Zaccheus

The Good Parent Quiz

It is only one question, you decide...

1. Your 15 year old son decides to give his IPOD (that he just got for christmas) to one of his friends at school (without asking you), do you:

A. Demand he get it back & ground him for giving away a $250 item without asking

B. Commend him for being so generous with his friends

C. Say nothing and vow never to buy him anything expensive again

Given that I just gave a speech about raising unselfish children on my blog yesterday I guess that pretty much leaves me with only one possible solution!!

Here is a picture of Raider with his IPOD this Christmas. Apparently he didn't really need it anymore because he "can just put songs on his phone."

Raising Unselfish Children

I recently finished a great book called "Raising Unselfish Children in a Self-Absorbed World," by Jill Rigby. After reading my friend Abbey's blog today and hearing about her new commitment to give up cable, it inspired me to post (rant) about the great things I learned from this book.

One of the biggest premises of Raising Unselfish Children was, as parents, we need to be content ourselves. This is something I am very passionate about because I have struggled with it quite a bit throughout my life and it hasn't been until recently that I have really started learning to resist the temptation of getting caught up in our culture of "more".

In the book, the author says: "Some folks say we need nothing more than a roof, clothing, food and four wheels for transportation. Others say we need homes with a bedroom for every child, fashionable clothing, delectable food, and vehicles with a bit more than four wheels. Still others say that beyond this we need European antiques and oriental rugs to properly appoint our homes, the trendiest accessories to adorn our bodies, gourmet coffee with cream to satisfy our palate, and OnStar to guide our vehicles. We also need five thousand square feet of space for our family of four, designer handbags and computer bags to complete our look, sushi and imported cigars three times a week, the latest movies for the DVD player in our luxury SUV, and of course a full entertainment system in our home theater. Enough is never enough." She goes on to say that "the average cost of a luxury kitchen remodel is $57,000. That's $10,000 more than it costs to build a typical Habit for Humanity home." As my friend Abbey says in her post " I guess it is all about perspective."

The author continues on with tons of really great, practical tips to help "bump your children off self-center," including spending family time together, intentionally living with less, serving together, demonstrating compassion and developing it in your children, teaching age-appropriate responsibility and nurturing God-confidence.

Honestly, I never thought much about these concepts until I had to start making decisions in raising children. Now they are critically important to me in a culture where "we yearn for newer, bigger, faster. And when we get it, we still want more." I could write several more pages on this book but the bottom line is: as our children grow up they will be surrounded by a society of go, go, go and more, more, more. I pray that Micah and I are able to teach them something different in our home, than what they see in the world.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

The Little Things - I Found My Tongue

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault

James - In the last week or so James has found his tongue. I'm not sure he knew it existed before but he is very aware of it all the sudden. He is often seen now with it sticking out of his mouth, moving it all around, licking his lips or making motorboat sounds with it.

Haylie - I think the fact that I am an activity junkie (always have to be somewhere, doing something) is starting to wear off on Haylie. Lately she has started asking all the time: "What are we going to do now?" , "Where are we going to go now?" and she is very disappointed when the answer is nothing / nowhere. I want to tell her - "Haylie - you don't aways have to be going somewhere and doing something," but then I'd have to say "Do as I say, not as I do," and I hate that line. :)

Raider - Nothing new for Raider but just a comment about how thankful I am right now for his help! We finally found a babysitter. She is the nicest girl and we are so excited we can actually go out. We went out tonight and left Raider home as well. We told him to make sure and leave her alone (don't talk her ear off!! Luckily she is 4 years older and has a 16 year old brother so she said she was used to it ). When she left tonight I asked her how Raider did and she said he was very helpful. She couldn't understand what Haylie was saying so Raider helped, he knew where things were, etc. I had told Micah at dinner I actually felt better knowing Raider was there because he knows all the kids' routines, he can calm James down if he goes through his stranger anxiety, etc.

Junior Scrapbooker

I have started training Haylie early!! She is just destined to be a scrapbooker :) Actually, I was scrapbooking one day and Haylie decided she wanted to scrapbook too. So I pulled up a chair for her at my desk, stapled some paper together and put her to work with some extra photos, crayons, glue, and stickers. She did a great job making herself a little scrapbook. Mommy was very proud! Then she started naming some of her friends that she wanted to make scrapbooks for also. I happily obliged since I was getting pages done myself! :) Isn't that just the greatest?!!!

Her First Day!

Today was Haylie's first day of preschool and she was so excited. She woke up ready and rarin to go!! All she could talk about was going to play with "my friends." We had to get the traditional first day of school photos and she was just sooo cute with her little backpack (which she didn't actually need for school). I couldn't be more proud! We prayed together for her big day and then Mommy took her to class. She went straight into the room and started painting immediately without a second thought. It was sad to think about how she has grown up so fast already but I was so proud and excited for her about the fun that awaits.

After school Daddy picked her up and took her to lunch. She told him about how fun school was, how she went down the slide and how she pushed a boy and a boy pushed and hit her! Fun times!!! :)

In preparation for school we thought she should learn her whole name. Here it is... (H A Y L I E - Haylie Faith Runner)