We Already Have to Deal With This?

There's a cute little girl from Taylor's class that keeps calling him--not just once in a while, but several times a day. They will talk about nothing for quite a while until we tell Taylor that he needs to get off. They are holding up the phone line to sit in silence sometimes while they do their own thing. It's really quite funny. . . or scary . . . I don't know what to think! Aren't we too young to be dealing with this? I know he has had his eye on her for a while. One of his best friends used to like her and she liked him. Taylor actually made a beaded necklace with her name on it for his friend to give to her while they were "going out". His friend, of course, didn't want to give it to her. Eventually they "broke up" and Taylor's friend was heart broken. I don't know if she broke up with him for Taylor or what. I sure hope not. We've talked to Taylor about him being too young to have a "girlfriend". He says that they are only friends, but I still can't help but wonder. Luckily at this age, not much harm can be done. We'll have to let you know how the saga ends.

Dallin's 8th Birthday

We celebrated Dallin's 8th birthday twice, once with Jarin's family the day before his birthday, and once again the day after his birthday with friends. Since his actual birthday was on a Sunday, it was very low key. We made his favorite meal: shrimp scampi, macaroni and cheese, and fruit (grapes, apples, and bananas). We served it on our nice china.

His birthday party was on Monday right after school. He had eight friends join him at a place called "Jump On It" in Lindon. The kids got to jump for an hour on a whole bunch of trampolines that are connected together in a 10,000 square foot warehouse. There were even trampolines on the side of the walls. Jarin said it was an awesome workout. I think he had as much fun as the kids. I just stood by and watched. Afterwards, we brought the kids back to our house for pizza, cake, ice cream, and presents. I think Dallin felt that it was a special birthday. He is so easy to please! Here are some pictures during his party.

I will blog about his baptism when I get the pictures from everyone. The battery to my camera died right when we were about to take pictures after the baptism.

Thanksgiving Feast

I wrote this blog last week but couldn't get the my computer to recognize my camera. For some reason it works now (thank goodness).

Phew! That was amazing! I have never hosted a Thanksgiving feast at my house before. It was a lot of work but very rewarding. We had 24 people over. That included many of Jarin's family members, Scott, Maran, Hannah, and two friends brought by Chalyce and Courtney. The food was incredible. We had a very yummy turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, two kinds of fruit salads, broccoli salad, rolls, homemade gravy, stuffing, a green bean casserole, homemade macaroni and cheese, pies, pies, and more pies. Did I miss anything? It was wonderful. After lunch/dinner, we went to see the "Bee" movie with Jarin's family. It was pretty good. Kids and adults enjoyed it alike (however half of us were falling asleep due to the tryptophan in the turkey). We weren't in a rush ever and the day was just perfect. Here are some pictures. I didn't take as many as I had intended. I wish I would have taken a picture of the tables prior to eating so you could see how we fit that many people in such little space. These will have to do.

Courtney and his friend Diane. She brought some yummy homemade macaroni and cheese.

This is a picture of Chalyce's friend Mark. He is an amazing pianist. He accompanied Jarin's song "The Spirit of Nativity" while he was hearing Jarin sing and play it on his guitar for the first time. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Halloween

We had a cute little lamb (I think), a beautiful princess, a mighty ninja, and Skullzor the scary dude. We found Sienna's costume in our closet full of dress-ups. I'm not sure where we got it from and if it is a lamb or white teddy bear costume. But she was cute and warm anyway. Kamrie's costume came from Grandpa Price last Christmas. She was very excited to wear make-up and had sparkles all over her face and hair. This is the third year in a row that she has been some kind of princess. I keep trying to convince her to be something else, but she just loves princesses. I'm afraid we're in for it when she becomes a teenager. Dallin found his costume at Target. I think he was more excited to buy the little ninja swords than the costume. He likes to play fight with Taylor and his buddies. I'm not sure if he was just playing the part in his pictures or if he just couldn't see with that costume and without his glasses. Taylor wanted to be something "scary" this year. I tried to suggest two other costumes we already had in the dress-up closet--Sulley from Monsters, Inc. or Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. Unfortunately he is old enough now that anything cutesie is WAY OUT. Then I tried to convince him to be something funny or cool like Napoleon Dynamite or a hippie. But he would have nothing to do with those either. I can't stand scary costumes. Fortunately, I don't think he scared anyone with that smile and those glasses (although Hannah doesn't look so sure in the picture). It was fun to have Scott, Maran, and Hannah come over for a pizza dinner and trick or treating. It was a perfect Halloween. The weather was much better than in the past and because the time change isn't until this Sunday, it was actually somewhat light out when we started. We all had a great time. Now we have to just control the sugar consumption. We have way too much candy because they did a trunk or treat on Tuesday as well. We let them pick about 15-20 pieces of candy that they just can't do without and keep them in their pumpkins. The rest of it went into a community pile. I have hidden that. For now they get to pick five pieces of candy a day to eat at their leisure. I'm not sure how long I will let that go on. I'm hoping the excitement of it all will fade soon. It's a good thing they have dentist appointments in a couple of weeks.

Clips from the Lives of My Kids

I know, I know. It's been way too long. Well here are some pictures of my kids recently. There isn't anything new or exciting going on our lives (unless you count Sisi's 2 year old adventures).

Sienna is so proud of her "lip gloss" that she put on. She found Kamrie's red stamp and stamped her lips a million times. It took a couple of days for it to completely disappear.

Here she is "potty training". I told her to pretend she was going poo poo. She recognizes that she has gone poo. But she won't tell me before. In fact, she hides somewhere and then tells me that she went potty. I hope to have her trained by Christmas. But I won't officially try until she poos pretty regularly in the toilet. I don't feel like throwing away brand new underwear every time there's an accident. Pee washes out just fine. But poo, well . . .gross and I won't even try.

This is Sisi and Grandma "Nae" (who is our adopted grandma) enjoying the beautiful outdoors during a scenic drive we took. She lives on our street and is the sweetest lady. We just love her. By the way, Sienna's hair is done every day of her life. But you couldn't tell by the pics since she constantly pulls out her hair things.

This picture may not be appropriate . . . but here it is anyway. They all thought it was funny to dress like Sienna and put her diapers on. I'm surprised they all fit into her size four diaper!

Typically we discourage these two from taking baths together. Here's just one reason why. It took quite a bit of water to clear out these bubbles made from a jetted tub.

The following are pictures of Kamrie and some classmates on her field trip to Hee Haw's Farm yesterday. I was lucky enough to be one of the parents who got to accompany them.

They each got to pick a small pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Up above is Kamrie sliding down a 30 foot slide. She was very afraid to do it alone but finally mustered up the courage and took the plunge.

Jury Duty

I feel like I've been gone forever for the last two days. I was called to Jury Duty about a month ago for Wednesday, September 5th. I showed up with 31 other possible jurors. After being interviewed for 3 1/2 - 4 hours, I was actually selected by both lawyers to be one of the jurors for a two day trial. Only eight of us were chosen. I kind of wondered if I would be picked because I'm not an extremely opinionated person. I can always see both sides. I tell you it is hard to come up with the best solution for everyone. I'm so glad I don't have to judge anyone in the next life. I also can see why it is so important to hire a GOOD lawyer and that if you are ever in any kind of accident, take pictures of everything, including your injuries.

If you're interested in the case, keep reading. The case was a civil lawsuit involving a car accident. Usually these things are settled out of court. But both sides felt very strongly about their cases; and so it unfortunately went to court. I think both sides lost. Here is the scenario (I'll try to be short and to the point): The plaintiffs were two young and poor Hispanic people and the defendant (the one being sued) was a middle to upper class white male. This car accident happened almost four years ago in December 2003. So memories of everything are kind of foggy. The 18 yo from Argentina claims he was making a left hand lane change from the left hand lane (third lane) into the left turning lanes going from State Street in Orem to 800 North. He waited in line in traffic at a red light until the two-way turning lane (the middle lane between the two sides) ended before merging into the turning lanes. He claims that the white male was being negligent by passing everyone waiting in line when he merged into the two-way turning lane a few cars behind to get to the same left turning lanes on State Street. The 18 yo turned into the left turning lanes a split second before the white male approached causing them to collide. The 18 yo had two other passengers in the car- a 16 yo and a 14 yo girl. The 14 yo got a large "goose-egg" on her forehead which later turned into swelling throughout her face for three more weeks. She endures some lasting problems, such as her eye twitching when she reads for long periods of time, headaches about twice a week, slight pain in her neck and arm caused by a disc that's out of place. She says she can't be in loud places for long periods of time which has caused social isolation. The 18 yo claims he has headaches 2-3 times a week still, pain in his left eye, and scars on his two index fingers from biting them :) when he has the excruciating headaches. It takes him about two hours longer to do his work at the family business because of the constant headaches. Together they wanted $70 grand from the white male to cover both medical bills and pain and suffering.

The white male was on his way to drop off his wife and kids at his home to make it to a BYU basketball game when the accident happened. He feels that he did absolutely nothing illegal and that the 18 yo was actually trying to make a U-turn right there and not merging into the left turning lanes because of the speed that he shot out and because the 18 yo was looking at the southbound lanes and not at him. The defendant paid a forensic/UDOT guy (who okays all the lights, traffic signs, and lines in Orem) to come and reenact the accident for us. He said that after looking at the police reports, testimonies, photos of cars after accident, and plugging them into his computer program, that the evidence supported what the white male was saying: The 18 yo was indeed making a U-turn from a quick speed. He also said that travelling in the two-way lane was permissible for the white male. There was some debate on that from the plaintiff's lawyer, so I was still unclear what the law really was saying. We had to try and pick it apart as a jury to know what the overall consensus was on the law. We decided that the law said he could use that lane to prepare for a left turn at the turning lane as long as he was being safe in doing so. We felt that the overall feeling from everyone was that the white male was probably going a little too fast for road conditions and considering the traffic.

We had to place the amount of fault we thought each had (and we tried really hard to be fair). We decided that the 18 yo was 80% at fault due to the fact that he didn't use his blinker or even look to see if someone was coming up behind him to the left before he either merged or flipped the U-turn. We felt that it was irrelevant if he was merging or flipping a U-turn. We put 20% blame on the white male for driving faster than was probably safe in the two-way lane. We had to come up with how much the 14 yo should be compensated because she was truly the victim here. We decided that $10,000 covered her medical expenses and $7,500 covered her pain and suffering. Since the white male was 20% at fault, he has to pay 20% of $17,500 which is $3,500. I think he doesn't pay it out of pocket though. Even though no one said it, I'm also sure that the 14 yo had insurance that covered most of her medical bills, car insurance paid for the damage of the cars, and that the lawyers will take a good portion of their money. As for the 18 yo, he got nothing but lawyer bills because he was more than 50% at fault for the accident.

All in all, I feel mostly bad for the defendant because he was not the cause of the accident and he was the one getting sued. We got to talk with the lawyers and everyone after the case. They asked us questions about how we came to our conclusions and how the lawyers could have done better. The 14 yo was happy because she got some money, though it is little. Pretty sad though. I think everyone lost here. But I had a great time getting to know the other jurors. I don't think I've laughed so hard in such a long time. There were some hilarious guys there. It kind of made me want to go to work to have that social time. But, I realize the importance of my work as a mother, even though it feels like I've accomplished nothing most of the time. However, I think it helped Jarin appreciate what I do because he stayed home for those two days to watch the kids. Also, it helped me appreciate how tiring it is to work all day and then come home to a mad house. I'll reap the benefits of my reward as a mother when the kids are grown, I know. It'll all pay off in the end.

Back to School

Taylor and Dallin started their first day of fourth and second grades almost two weeks ago on August 21st. Taylor's teacher, Ms. Murdock, has just completed her "student teaching" at Saratoga Shores last year. So she is brand spankin' new. I'm sure she'll be great. All of the teachers have been so far. However, she announced the first day of school that she just barely got engaged and will be married next June. Hopefully she's not too distracted. Dallin's teacher, Mrs. Rowberry, has been at Saratoga Shores Elementary for a couple of years now (considering that the school is only a few years old--that's pretty good!) She is pregnant with her first baby and is due in a few weeks. So Dallin will have a substitute for six weeks. It's got to be hard to be a brand new mom and a teacher all at the same time. I don't know how these women do it. I'm sure it will be a great year for everyone.

Kamrie's first day of kindergarten was last Tuesday, August 28th. She was very excited (and nervous since she hardly touched her lunch that day). She goes in the afternoon. Kamrie's teacher is Mrs. Ashworth (same teacher Dallin had). She is a middle aged lady with seven kids. She's been teaching for a long time. She did Kamrie's kindergarten assessment the week prior and said Kamrie will be reading in no time. So far, Kamrie has loved it. She was so excited for kindergarten that she kept asking every day since we got home from California how close it was to the time she got to go.

It's really strange to have just one child at home for part of the day. I don't think I've experienced that since Dallin was born almost eight years ago. To top it off, Sienna goes down for a nap part of the time. Wow, whatever shall I do with myself? I'm sure I could find a few things.

Taylor and Dallin's First Day of School

Waiting at the bus stop.

Sienna's reaction every time someone leaves on the bus without her. This week she kept saying, "I wanna go to kindogowden." I'm sure she'll start to enjoy her alone time with mommy soon.

All right, so I copied Jennifer somewhat. But hey, it was a good idea. I found this pencil brownie idea online. Mine didn't quite turn out like the one in the picture. But that's okay. It still tasted like lots of sugar, and that's what is important.

Kamrie's First Day of School

Kamrie wanted a treat with gummy bears on it--so Rice Krispies Treats with frosting and gummy bears it was. She had a great first day of school.

California Trip

Okay, so I'm a little slow. But here are some more pictures to add to everyone's collection. Thanks to everyone for the great time we had.

THE SALT FLATS IN UTAH

The kids' first experience with the salt flats. We stopped at a rest stop on the way to Sacramento and let the kids play for a minute. It was really interesting to have the salt stick to your shoes. They actually have a place designated to clean the salt off your shoes.

HANGIN' WITH COUSINS

Come here and give me a "tiss."

LAKE CAMANCHE

Careful, the white legs might blind you!

STINSON BEACH WITH GRANDMA AND GRANDPA PRICE

We should do trips more like this every time. It's so much work to get there with all the grandkids. But it is so worth it.

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA D'S BACKYARD

Kamrie taught herself how to swim while in Cali. She is so proud of herself and thinks she can do anything now. She jumps off diving boards into deep water and goes down the water slides all by herself now at public pools. We have to remind her that she still needs an adult to watch her at all times.

While skimming through the pictures, I realized that I'm not the best at capturing moments as I would like to be. I wish I could have had more of all of you in our pictures. I'll have to remember that the next time we get together. We had a great time anyway! Stay tuned for the first days at school. I will post about it sometime after Tuesday.

Here's a Bit of Our Last Month

I haven't had much time the last few Sundays to blog. So here are some pictures from the last month:

We had a great time on Taylor's birthday. We went swimming, watched Ratatouille, ate at Fazoli's, came home, and ate some Rainbow Chip cake and Rainbow Sherbet (and Moose Tracks for those with a chocolate tooth).

A little 4th of July celebration and festivities.

Here's having a good time with cousins! Sisi thinks she is so funny.

Shawn and Brittney's wedding at the Salt Lake Temple.

Trampoline fun at Grandpa Stevens' house.