Christmas is for Giving

We took the boys Christmas shopping a few weeks before Christmas so they could help us pick out gifts for 2 young men who we were helping provide Christmas for through the Angel Tree at Cayden's school.  We went to St. George so of course that meant we had to eat somewhere yummy-Texas Roadhouse!  We always order way too much food and we eat way too much.  Don and I always forget that we should just order one entree and share it and we only remember after we have ordered and eaten the appetizers and are stuffed and still waiting for our main course.  We ordered fried pickles this time which was a first for me and I decided that I didn't like them at all.  Kyle on the other hand loved them and consequently didn't eat his dinner when it came because he ate lots of pickles and cheese fries.  After dinner we spent a considerable amount of time in Walmart walking up and down the aisles trying to decide what to get to 17 year old boys that we knew nothing about.  We ended up getting them each a basketball, a blanket, a leatherman and some pj's and a sweatshirt.  We also put in some gift cards to McDonalds.  My boys were very helpful in picking out stuff and also telling me "no way" on other things.  Caleb also bought them some candy with his own money.  We had to of course go to Swig on the way home.

This is Kyle driving his sleigh/cart in Walmart.

The other things we did to help others for Christmas was while we were in Utah at Thanksgiving.  Suzanna and I had talked about what we wanted to do with our families literally the night before we found this idea and I know that it was just a complete tender mercy and inspiration from Heavenly Father.  That morning I was reading the paper on the kitchen counter while getting breakfast and I saw this story about patients at the state mental hospital and a program that they did every year called "The Forgotten Patient".  Oh my gosh!  Talk about a sad situation!  There are people at the hospital of all ages who would not get a Christmas of any kind unless this program was available.  There was a contact email for the director and after calling Suzanna to tell her what I had found I emailed the lady and even called her phone number to leave a message because we really wanted to participate.  I was quite surprised when she emailed me back that afternoon and we called all the family members and decided how we were going to help.  We were given 2 people to buy for a 14 year old young man and a 35 year old man.  We did our shopping before we left Provo so that we didn't have to ship stuff.  We bought and filled a stocking for the young man. Caleb bought him the monster truck. The teenager seemed like he had a much younger mental age so he was easy to buy for.

  Aunt Suzanna and grandma Penny wrapped all the gifts and delivered them to the hospital. We were so glad that we could participate in this program and we look forward to helping again next year. 

We also helped a single father and his son here in our valley who were new and basically had nothing. We got them a grocery gift card and sent them a bunch of fruit. There were several people who helped this family have a nice Christmas. 

Share the Gift

For FHE the second Sunday in December we watched the Mormon Message "Share the Gift" and we made our own signs to show how we will share the gift.  Why my children want to look like they are in a police line up I don't know.

Dad said he would share the gift by recognizing and sharing and letting people know when he has seen someone be a good example or when they have done something good.
Mom said she would share the gift by being friendly, cheerful and polite while out shopping or in public.  Connor said he would share the gift by doing service either big acts or small acts.
Caleb said he would share the gift by doing random acts of kindness.
Cayden said he would share the gift by smiling and being kind to others.
Kyle said he would share the gift by helping people, being sweet and saying kind things.

Kyle Brandt-So Mom Won't Forget These Things

We love how he says hammer-burger and thinks every drink needs to Sprite or chocolate milk.  

He is recently been enthralled with Legos much to Cayden's chagrin and mine because now they are all over the house.  

He is in that rough stage where he sometimes still needs a nap but if he takes one then he won't go to bed until really late.

Since we have 1:00 church he will usually fall asleep on my lap in the middle of the meeting and then he gets a 20-40 minute power nap which is just enough to get us through until bed time.  

He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, going to story time at the library and going to the park.  

He is really an obedient child and doesn't throw too many massive fits.  When he does throw fits though he will stand in place and scream at the top of his lungs.  

He was on a grilled cheese kick there for a while and ate one every day and sometimes more than one.  

He doesn't like the crust on his sandwiches.  

He loves to have grits for breakfast and if he is not starving I can get him to wait the 15 minutes or so it takes to make them.  

He loves pink cookies from Wally's-the Granny B's kind.  He calls it Wa-wee's.  

He loves loves loves his brothers and tells them all the time that he loves them.

He will just randomly run up to us and hug around the legs and say I love you mommy or I love you daddy.

He has to hold my hand while he's falling asleep.

He likes to wear his ball caps and remembers to put one on most times when we are getting ready to leave the house.  

He doesn't like me to leave and I go back and forth about sneaking out or telling him and making sure he knows that I will come back.

He loves to read books.  He really likes the Llama Llama books and since they rhyme he can finish the sentences.  He really like a book called Little Blue Truck as well that we renewed for as long as we could from the library until we had to give it back.

He loves to sing I am a Child of God and asks me to sing the temple song to him usually every day.

He wants to say his prayers by himself.

He is not the most compliant and attentive during home evening.  It is hard to teach the older boys with him jumping all over the furniture and all over every one else.

He pretends that he is a puppy named Bella and crawls around and sniffs the ground.

He is quite imaginative and plays with his toys and makes up stories about what is going on.

He told me this afternoon after he had a nap that he wanted peace and quiet.

He has said the word d*** it a few times when he has dropped something wonder where he got that?  

He knows who the prophet is and likes to carry around a little pendant that the prophet's picture on it.

He wears 3T pants and 4 t shirts.

He has a second pair of "spiderman" shoes that he wears in a bigger size from before.  They are easy to get on and he can usually get them on himself.  He could get his flip flops on by himself over the summer.

He carries around calculators and call them his phone.  He took a big magnet off the fridge that was the size of an Ipad and called it his Ipad.  He was quite upset if anyone took it away from him.

He throws every toy he can in the bathtub-sometimes toys that shouldn't be thrown in the bath tub.  

He likes to stand at the kitchen sink and do dishes-which translates into let the water run and empty the bottle of dishwashing soap into the sink.

He likes to help make dinner and just climbs right up on the counter and tries to help.

If any of the boys have friends come over he calls them HIS friends.  Cayden's friend and his little brother came over and he grabbed the little brother's hand who is 8 and said "Your my best friend.  Want to see my room?"  He gets quite distressed when Cayden tries to lock him out or keep him out of his room.  

He calls his big toe his thumb toe and his other toes finger toes.  

He adds "er" to the end of lots things to turn them into nouns like his lemonade-er, his hot dog-er, 

He started singing songs about a troubador.  Not sure where that came from.

He didn't want to wake up from his nap and he so he told me that he needed peace and quiet.

He likes to make "machines" and calls his inventions a "double decker" whatever  hotdogger or bigger hot chocolater.

He call the tall barstool that he likes to sit on "the bigger chair".  If you get him the shorter bar stool he will remind you that he needs the bigger chair.

Right now the kid will not stay off of the counters.  It is driving me up the wall because I constantly find him and hear him climbing on them and I'm afraid that he is going to turn on the stove or get down the knives or something.  

He has of late been concerned about loud noises.  He doesn't like the hair dryer or the fans.  I hear him quite often say "what was that noise" and half the time I can't hear anything.

He has been the easiest of all the boys to potty train!  Yay!

Obamacare Consequences

This is Gladys, our very awesome nurse at the UMC Diabetes Clinic.  The clinic was shut down as of September 30 because of the Obamacare mess.  This is one of the few diabetes clinics in LasVegas and one of even less that takes low income patients.  We were so blessed to find Dr. Flynn a few years ago and this is where she worked.  Luckily, (tender mercy) Dr. Flynn was able to move to another doctor's office across town that has nothing to do with UMC.  200 people lost their jobs and many quick cares and this office and others were shut down.  We didn't get a picture with Dr. Flynn because we will still get to see her in the other office but we will miss Gladys!  She was sweet and funny and patient and always entertained and engaged Connor and was kind to Cayden.  She gives nursing a good name and we were glad to have met her.  Thanks for nothing Mr. Obama.

Scout Advancements

Caleb and Cayden  had a Court of Honor on Sunday October 25.  They are both doing really well in their progress. Cayden got his Star rank and 7 merit badges and Caleb got 4 merit badges.  Caleb only has to do his Eagle Project now and he will be finished.  Cayden worked really hard at scout camp over the summer and was diligent in going to some merit badge pow wows the ward had put on so he was able to pass off a lot of stuff.  I am very appreciative of the our boys scout leaders who are so diligent in helping them get these badges and progress.  It is a monumental task!

Connor is 1 merit badge away from being totally done with scouting.  ONE!!!  He did his Eagle Project last December while he still had a few merit badges to work on.  He loved doing the project.  If manual labor is involved that kid is in!  His leaders in 1st ward have worked very hard to get him to complete these remaining badges.  The last merit badge is either hiking, biking or swimming.  He started the biking a few years ago and never finished it because of the last few rides that were 20 or so miles long.  He started swimming last year and never finished it because he would never go swimming with us-because he always wanted to work.  He started hiking in September and did 3 ten mile hikes in about a month but since then he has flat out refused to go hiking.  He still needs 2 more 10 mile hikes and a 20 mile hike.  His dad has planned several time to take him but Connor always has a reason to not go and if we push him like we did a few weeks ago it ends up backfiring and he goes to meltdown mode.  I have been so frustrated about the whole thing because he is so stinking close to being done with this and so many people have worked so hard to get him here.  He is not the average scout and so it has taken greater effort and more time and many more people to get him to this point.  I have been praying about what to do about this because we are down to less than 2 months to get this done.  All merit badges and the project have to be done before the scout is 18 or it doesn't count.  My answer was to go back and get the swimming merit badge.  He had worked on that previously and it would only require 1 outing and not 3 like the hiking would.  We figure that we can drag him if we have to 1 time to the Mesquite pool and that would be much easier than trying to get him on 3 more hikes in the next 2 months.  Hopefully this will be over soon so we can stop worrying about it!

Quickly I'll Obey

In dealing with a very independent and busy 3 year old I have had to resort to various tactics in getting him to cooperate without me getting mad.  I was trying to put him in the car seat a few weeks ago and he was running around the garage and wouldn't get in the car.  Finally I started singing the song "Quickly I'll Obey".

When my mother calls me
Quickly I'll Obey
I want to do just what is best.
Each and every day.

He jumped right in the car and got in his seat and after I buckled him in we were off!  What an epiphany!

I had been praying for a few days about what to do to get CAYDEN to obey.  Sometimes that kid has serious selective hearing and I sound like a broken record all day long trying to get him to do something.  So as I sang that to Kyle I wondered silently if that was my answer for Cayden.  Well after school I tried it and it worked marvelously!  He was a little slow at first to catch on but like usual I would ask him to do something.  Then if he didn't respond right away I would just sing "quickly I'll obey".  After 2-3 times of me repeating that song and not repeating my request he caught on and went and did what I had asked.  It's not like I'm asking him to do anything hard just the usual tasks that need to be done: put away his backpack, take off his shoes, practice his piano etc.  I kept doing that for a few days and he was very compliant.  By about day 3 the novelty had worn off for Cayden anyway and he just went back to selective hearing.  I swear with that kid I have to mix it up.  So other days we resorted to checklists so I wasn't a broken record and on some other days it came down to outright bribery.

Kyle on the other hand still likes it and will obey a little quicker when I sing the song.  He especially likes to "obey" when I say "go get on the bed so we can change you".  He will run to the bedroom, climb up on the bed and lay down and say "I obeyed!"  He really is a pretty compliant child most of the time.  When I sing the song to him it's because he is running around and trying to get away from me not necessarily being deliberately disobedient.

I know that Heavenly Father will answer our prayers even for things like this if we ask him.  I write this down so on those days-like today when I am wondering if my prayers get answered I can read this and remember that they do.

PF Changs Drummer

Dad brought home PF Changs for dinner one night and Kyle thought it would be fun to sit on the counter and use the chopsticks for drum sticks.  

Halloween 2014

BBQ Master

Don and his friend Kyle Heiselbetz competed in their first BBQ contest at the fair grounds during the Logandale Fall Festiva on November 1.  They had to make 4 different kinds of smoked meat-brisket, chicken, ribs and pulled pork.  There were lots of rules and technicalities that had to be followed but they had a good time.  They borrowed the Bishop's Traeger smoker and spent many hours getting ready and watching the meat and many more hours prepping it for the judging.  For being first timers they did really great.  They took 4th in ribs and they got a medal, a certificate and even some cash!  They also placed in every other category but one and I can't remember which one it was. It was quite amusing because since they were the newbies they were getting lots and lots advice from the more seasoned competitors.  Don and Kyle were very gracious about all their help but it was quite funny that they placed higher in most categories than those guys that do this all the time.  I never got a picture of Don and Kyle together.  For weeks after that these guys were in cahoots to take this show on the road and go to different meat competitions.  The name of their team was Smokin' and Jokin'-very apropos.  

Getting "advice" from the neighbor competitor.  

Storytime Fun

Story time is held at our library on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  We try to go as often as we can.  They read stories and sign songs and do lots of movements.

They let the kids wear their Halloween costumes the week of Halloween.  

Quilting With The Elders

This is Elder Carreno and Elder Boak.  These guys were very interested in learning how to quilt.  I don't think it had anything to do with the numerous young women that were there quilting either.  Our ward help provide lap quilts for 68 patients at the senior center in Mesquite.  It took alot of help and time and donations from our ward and from some other wards.  I sewed up 5 quilts myself!

Fall Fun

Cleaning the church.  

We drove to Pine Valley to see the fall leaves and get a yummy pie from Veyo Pies.  `

We picked pumpkins in the Hardy pumpkin patch.  

This is how we decorate pumpkins.  

The Elders Quorum held a pig roast.  

Dad got a new truck!

Flood of 2014

On Monday September 8, 2014 the floods came.  The weather was predicting rain but lots of times here in the desert we just look at that and say "yeah right"  but this time they were right.  I took this picture of my weather app about 2:30 right about the time that Cayden was coming home from school.  It shows that it was raining but at the time it really wasn't.  With in a few hours that had changed dramatically.  The rain started about 3 and it rained and rained and rained.  Then the power went out about 4 until about 4:30 when it kicked on for a few minutes but then it went out for good until 11:30 that night.  About 5:30. after the power had been out for over and hour, we decided to just get out of the house and go for a ride.  We drove over to Grandma's to check on Connor.  There was a lot of commotion on their street and not long after we got there we heard that there was a big wall of water coming down a wash and it was headed right for their area.  The wash had a diversion that had been built back in the 80's but it had broken so the water didn't divert to where it was supposed to.  

This is from the top of the overpass looking south on I-15.  This is the traffic backed up after the rain because the freeway was gone.  A big wall of water came down a wash that ran right under the freeway but there was so much water that it just took out the freeway with it.  

This is the water going over the freeway right about the Glendale exit.  

This is the water that was coming down a different wash right at Dottie and Dave's house.  This was about 6pm right as the water had crossed Whipple street and came around Jones' house and through Ellen Whipple's house and yard.

This is how we spend several hours with several neighbors.  We were shoveling and sweeping the water away from the house and out through the gates to keep it from getting in the house.  The section of fence right above Dottie's head is the fence section that Caleb broke down so that there was more room for the water to go through.  

This is how Caleb, Connor and their friends were getting around to help people after the flood.  They rode around on 4 wheelers to get to people and help them shovel mud out of their yards and away from their homes.  They helped move hay that had gotten wet so it wouldn't internally combust.  They moved debris like limbs and logs and rocks that were in the roads and along side the roads.  These boys worked really hard.  

This is part of the bread, milk and eggs that we collected to send to Moapa who was cut off from the world because of the freeway damage and because they had gotten hit really hard with water coming from washes and the Muddy River.  This was on the Thursday after the flood.  We got word that they were running low on some staples and that an Metro officer was able to get them and he would take up whatever we could gather.  I sent out a mass text to all the sisters in my ward and asked for milk, bread, and eggs and within 45 minutes the back of my suburban was full.  We were grateful for the opportunity to help.  

When they finally got the freeway to get to Moapa we were able to go up there and check on some of our friends.  This is the home of the Aunt of some of friends who used to be in the ward (Laurie Flynn's sister, Heather Flynn's aunt).  The water came through and basically wiped out the ground underneath their home and made it unsafe.  

This is my emergency food supply in case the water came back.  I also had a case of Ding Dongs.  There was more rain slated for the next week but it didn't ever happen.