Emma's birthday (a late post)

Emma turned 14! She is a fun teenager.  She is excited to go to her first stake dance this month.  She wants to wear makeup now.  It's a good thing she got some for her birthday.  She loves her guitar so I wasn't too surprise when she told me she wanted a cake shaped like a guitar.  I was nervous about making it, but it wasn't too hard.  It turned out cute, except I didn't really like the color the frosting turned out.  Emma was happy with it and that is what matters.

Emma had a party with her friends to play volleyball after her birthday.  She has such a nice group of friends! I am grateful for good friends for our children.  The girls had fun eating cake and playing volleyball together.  I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures. 

Here are some pictures from Emma's birthday.  Happy birthday, Emma!

Middle School Band Concerts

About a month ago David and Emma had their first band concert of the year.  They did great! This is David's first year playing in the band. He has really enjoyed playing the trumpet.  I think they sounded pretty good for playing less than two months.  This is Emma's second year playing the clarinet in the band.  She really enjoys music.  I am so grateful that our children have the opportunity to play instruments and develop their talents.  They have a great teacher and they enjoy band.  I recorded a bit of each song and put it together in a video.  Hope you enjoy listening to their concerts.

School Bus fun

Joshua and Lydia have loved going to Preschool together.  We didn't have preschool the last two weeks because Miss Holly their teacher had some health problems.  She called us Tuesday morning to let us know she was back and there would be school that morning.  She also told them they were going to get to ride a bus.  They were so excited! They got ready for school so fast and started watching for the bus.  They were disappointed when I told them we would drive into school and then get on the bus there.  They really wanted to ride a bus into school like the other children.  They had fun on the bus.  We rode from the preschool to the Middle school to learn how to get on and off the bus.  It was fun to see how exciting it was for them to ride the bus.

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Halloween 2014

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. We didn't grow many, actually any pumpkins this year so we didn't carve pumpkins. We did let the children carve pumpkins virtually. The children decided what they wanted to be, some sooner than others. I made Joshua's yellow pikachu pants the day before the preschool party. I made MaryAnne's pirate dress about half an hour before I had to go pick her up. Dallin decided the morning of Halloween to be Harry Potter. He and Adam had planned something else, but it fell through. Joshua found the Pikachu hat at Walmart in July and wanted it for his costume. Lydia wanted to be Elsa, but she didn't tell me until we were out trick or treating downtown. I guess she can be Elsa next year. It reminded me of when Rebecca was two and I made her a Snow White dress. When it was finished she said it was cute, but she really wanted to be Cinderella. I don't think she ever got to be Cinderella. At least this year I did let the children stay and go to the Carnival at the Church. They didn't get to stay as long as they wanted, but they did go. We also went out to Dallin's teacher's house. I thought of Martha as we ate pizza. It has been a tradition for a lot of years to eat Pizza on Halloween. We had nice weather for Halloween and I was glad about that. Here are some pictures of our Halloween activities.

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The end of an era

Joshua has seen Dr. Wiggins at least every 6 months since he was born.  For the first couple of years we saw him more like every other month.  I am so grateful for Dr. Wiggins and his peaceful and caring manner.  It has been an amazing experience to work with him and his staff. 

When I called in September to schedule Joshua's appointment in October I heard the words I have worried about since starting this heart journey.  "Dr. Wiggins is not coming to outreach clinics anymore, he is working towards retirement."  He has hired someone else to take over for him.  I decided to go to Billings to see Dr. Wiggins one last time instead of going to Cody and see Dr. Lashus.  Evee George was taking her daughter, Brinlee, up so I scheduled Joshua's appointment at the same time so we could go up together.  We enjoyed the day, it was fun to listen to Joshua and Brinlee in the back seat.  They had a great time talking together.

I love Dr. Wiggins nurse, Melissa, as much as I love Dr. Wiggins.  Melissa is also leaving in May. She has been going to school to be a nurse practitioner.  I have always thought that Melissa has an amazing ability with children.  She loves to talk to them and makes them feel so comfortable.  I have always thought if she wasn't a pediatric nurse she should be a children's photographer.  She is so good at getting them to smile.  I wanted to get a picture of Joshua with Melissa, but she avoids cameras.  I did get a picture of her on the floor with Joshua while he was picking out stickers for doing so well.

Joshua had a great report at this visit.  Six months ago Dr. Wiggins didn't like the rhythm of Joshua's heart so he had to wear a holter monitor for 24 hours to monitor his heart.  Everything looked good this time.  Joshua's oxygenation was better this time also.  He fenestration from his Fontan surgery is starting to close up on its own.  That helps him have more oxygen.

It has been a tender mercy to have a pediatric cardiologist so close and I am grateful that Dr. Lashus will be here now.

Melissa always calls Joshua sticker man when he has his EKG

Brinlee, Joshua and Dr. Wiggins

Melissa letting Joshua and Brinlee bring a bunch of stickers home

That's a new PR

Right now as I am typing Matthew is in Star Valley running the Conference Cross Country meet.  I so hope he is doing well and is happy with his time today.

Last week the meet was here in Powell, it was the last meet of the season I will get to watch. The meet was at the Powell golf course.  The younger children had fun playing in our fall leaves before the race started.  Matthew ran so well.  His goal this year was to break 20:00 minutes.  He hadn't been met his goal yet.  Running at Powell he ran a 19:09.  He took almost a minute of his personal record.  Way to go Matthew!  I love watching you run!!

playing in the fall leaves with friends

Matthew's first mile

Come on Matthew you can catch him

Matthew and Ben in stride together

Still running strong

The final stretch, keep going Matthew

Who says Waite children can't dance?

Saturday afternoon some of the kids played Just Dance 4 on the Wii.  I love watching them do this together.  Joshua really wanted to win, but didn't want to dance so David stepped in and tried to win for Josh.   I think it is great that they like to this together and aren't afraid to dance.