Happy 4th!

So, it's the 4th of July weekend again. Wow! I can't believe it's already July. I think when I made my new year's resolution this year, that keeping up on my blog was something I was going to try to do but not completely stress over. Which is good since I haven't AT ALL and we are now 7 months into the year. Here is a quick update on what has been going on with us this year.

January 2011; Moved from Hurricane, UT to Sigurd, UT

Why? Well, I've been asked that a lot in 7 months. We were tired of the small town that wanted to be a big city. We needed a quieter street with less traffic for the kids to play, and smaller schools. We also have our Auto Body repair company which most of our customers are up this way, anyways. So, we packed up and moved our little family to a tiny town outside of Richfield, Utah called Sigurd. So far, we are really enjoying this little community. We live on a dead end street in a small subdivision right on the outskirts of the town. The kids have a few friends their age here in the neighborhood and we can just let them run. We never could have done that in Hurricane.

February 2011; Black ice and rear wheel drive don't mix.

Okay, straight to the point.... On my way from Sigurd to Richfield on Highway 118, it had snowed during the night after a warm rain (bad thing), I hit a patch of black ice which covered both lanes of traffic in my 1997 Lincoln Town Car. I was fortunate enough to have the pesence of mind to know what was around me so I could avoid an oncoming car, who also hit the ice by the way, and a large wooden power pole. However, what I failed to notice was the metal ground cable which connected to the power pole at a 45 degree angle to the ground. That is what stopped my car from sliding across the adjacent hay feild. It pushed my trunk lid into the drivers' side rear quarter panel and shattered my drivers' side tail light. All in all... no injuries, no property damage (to anything other than my car) and a story to tell.

March 2011; Almost all together again.

The kids and I moved in January. But, Justin stayed behind in Hurricane for two months to get some projects at the shop finished, and to get things there in order so it could be moved. He managed to make it up here to Sigurd in March. I still joke that the whole town pretty much thought he was a figment of my imagination for the longest time. Because even after he moved up here, he wasn't truly living with the family. He immediately started on a job in Angle. He lived at a friends' house there pretty much from then until June. He came home once or twice a week to shower, shave, and get clean clothes.

April 2011; Easter trip to Hurricane.

Well, the truck Justin was working on didn't make it to the Hurricane Easter Car Show, but we went anyway. We visited Justin's family and the Easter Bunny found the kids at Kelle's so they had a pretty good Easter.

May 2011; 10 years!

Justin and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in May. We have been together for 13 years and married for 10. Justin was still in Angle working on the truck and wasn't able to make it home until around 11:00 pm. We were able to celebrate later, but missed the big day. Justin was really dissapointed, but I managed to convince him it really is just a date on the calendar and we can celebrate it any day (or everyday).

June 2011; Warning, Deer crossing.

Well, you remember the black ice incident from February, right? Well, I managed to have a deer RUN RIGHT INTO ME four months later. I was driving on Highway 118 on my way home from work on a Saturday night. I had picked the babies up from daycare (the other two were with Justin), and was less than a mile from my house when a car traveling the opposite way who had refused to turn their brights off for the previous 2 miles FINALLY shut them off. It was just in time for me to see 8 deer running right at me. One of them hit my passenger side view mirror and ripped it right off. I was so mad, I didn't even stop! I drove the rest of the way home, and found that it was still attached, but was just hanging there by the wires (it was a power mirror). Also, Justin brought the bed of the truck he was working on in Angle to the house and started working on it here so he could be here with the family. He has started watching the kids while I am at work and I have taken them out of daycare for a while. I think he would get more done on the truck bed if he weren't having to stop and fix the kids' bikes every 10 minutes.

July 2011; Blog update.

Here we are, July 2nd, 2011. I have not updated anything on this blog since September 2009? That's insaine. To all of those who actually want to know what has been going on with my family, I apologize. I really will try to keep it somewhat updated in the future.

By the way... for those who want to know... Here is the running total for repairs to my Lincoln.

New tail light $45 from wrecking yard
New trunk lid $100 from Wrecking yard
New side view mirror $80 plus shipping (minimum, this is an expensive and hard to find part)
straighten passenger side rear quarter panel $0 Hubby won't charge me labor for that :)
Repaint whole car to make the same color since the new parts won't match $ don't wanna know.

So, the car cost us less than $300 to get, rebuild, license and insure. So, we were ahead to start with, but now we are looking at hundreds of dollars more to fix it. Not so far ahead now, are we?

There you have it... The long and the short of it. 7 months into the year 2011 and you now know all of the important things that have happened with our family far far this year.

Summer 2009

Check out some pictures of what we did this summer.

The highlight of the summer, was Justin, April and I going to Salt Lake to see Nickelback, Hinder, Saving Abel, and Papa Roach at the USANA Ampitheatre. We took a leasurely lunch break with Dee, Crystal, Ryan and Meg at Applebees in Layton. Sorry the pictures aren't very good, but Ryan took them with my new Samsung Instinct, and I'm not sure the camera in that phone is quite up to par.

We took my friend Sara, her man Kendall, and her neighbor to the concert with us. It was Sara's birthday, and I hadn't seen her in about 10 years, so I figured it was probably a pretty good way to make up for 10 years of no birthday presents. Anyway, we all had fun, and the kids got to have sleep overs at Grammy's house in the middle of the week, which they never get to do, so they were pretty psyched too.

Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed watching our summer go by about as much as we enjoyed doing it.

Good news! (Finally)

Okay, so I have been too busy (and I'll admit it, lazy) to update my blog for the past few months. However, I didn't have anything I was very interested in talking about. Well, now I do.

My last post was about how sick Nicholas has been and how we couldn't figure out exactly what it was. The most likely thing we could think of, was lactose intolerance. Well, we were WRONG.

I finally managed to get in to see the Pediatric Gastroenterologist about his "issues". The doctor was certain after listening to only a few seconds worth of his history that he knew exactly what was wrong with him. I was flabbergasted! The doctor asked me a few key questions like, what time of day does he usually start acting sick? How long does it last? How high of a fever, if any, does he typically get? How often does this occur?

After a brief discussion regarding all of these points, he printed off some information from the internet and gave me a diagnosis.

CYCLIC VOMITTING SYNDROME

He told me that it is so common that 1 in 50 kids from age 7+ have it, or have had it. The most common ages are children 7 and up, but it has been seen in infants, young adults, adults, and seniors! Most people just assume that it is a stomach flu or something and just don't stress about it. They assume that they are just over stressed or maybe ate something bad. The key is the fact that it occurs on a regular basis, lasts for 1 to 4 days and the main symptoms are vomiting and a lack of energy. It can be accompanied by a low grade fever and diarhea. Such as was the case with Nicholas.

He put Nicholas on Cyproheptadine to control the vomitting reflex while he is sleeping. (besides it is a really strong antihistimine, so it knocks him out all night) He also prescribed a medicine to stop the vomitting if he has another episode. With these two medications, he should not have any more bad episodes, if he has any at all, they should be much less dramatic.

Well, for any of you who might like to read more about cyclic vomitting syndrome, please click on the link below.

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/cvs/index.htm

Lactose intolerance

We have suspected for a while now that Nicholas may be lactose intolerant. He was able to tolerate formula just fine, but for some reason, he started getting really sick in January. He would throw up after drinking milk. He also had a fever and diarhea so when I took him into the doctor we assumed it was some kind of stomach bug. Well, it lasted about 4 days and he was fine again. In February, he got sick again, but so did the other kids. It started with pink eye and then Devan got laryngitits... I spent so much time in the doctor office, that when Nicholas got sick again, it was easy to just say that the whole family is just having a rough month. So, his doctor stated that it may be necessary to see a GI doc if it doesn't clear up. Well, it did and it started again in March. I am getting concerned at this point, and I called the GI doctor that helped Devan when he was 2. He needed a referral from our regular doctor and was completely booked up until after April 10th well, I was not able to get in to see his regular doctor by then and of course he wasn't sick at that time.

Well, when he got sick again this last weekend for no apparent reason, I decided to get the next available appointment with this doctor to get the referral to the GI doctor just to get it checked out and tell someone (who may have an idea what I'm talking about) what has been going on. Well, I will have to update later as to when and if I can get in with the GI doc any time soon, and if so, what he says, but for now, here is a picture that shows how yucky Nicholas has been feeling.

Most recent project completion

Justin finally finished the Mustang. Well, not completely finished.... He still has to finish the transmission issue, but the car is running like none other, all the interior is in tact and has been painted back to the original black color it should be. The dent in the fender has been repaired, and the broken headlight has been replaced. As for the paint.....

Before...

After...


See it has black racing stripes... right?

Nope! They are black cherry red! When you look at them in the sunlight from straight on, they almost blend into the red of the car. They become translucent! It's pretty cool!

Now all we need to do, is detail the inside, fix the tranny and get it sold! Justin is concidering changing the tranny from the tired 4 speed auto to a more appealing 5 speed standard, and I have a girlfriend who's kids are looking for a way to earn money this summer and for $10.00 they will come over here and detail the inside. Not a bad deal really. It's not even all that dirty!

Well, here's to hoping we can sell it soon! ;)

Dinner is served!

I like to let the kids help me cook once in a while. Here are some pictures from our most recent child prepared dinner.

Enchiladas - I think they ate more cheese than they put on the pan, though.

Yummy!

Pause from baking cookies for an Angel Hug!

KeLauna's first time using the electric mixer. (With a little help from Mom of course)

Bathroom remodel

Since the end of 2008, we have been down to only one bathroom in our house. You see, one day, when Justin was taking a shower in the upstairs bathroom, the kids came up and told me that the water was coming out of the ceiling downstairs. So..... We had a pipe burst and mildew a hole in the drywall in the downstairs bathroom doorway that made it look like a water fall just inside the bathroom. It was a curtain of water behind the door.

We had our home insurance send an adjuster out to help figure out what to do and just how bad the damage would be. He sent over a professional clean up crew to remove the wet drywall and dry it all out. Justin fixed the pipe and the insurance left us with an unusable bathroom and a check for $1000 to completely fix the downstairs bathroom. They expected us to just replace the damaged drywall and fix the burst pipe. They didn't take into concideration the fact that the break in the pipe was between the water heater and the upstairs bathtub in a space that I kid you not, is only about 8 inches wide and almost impossible to get to without removing the water heater.

Long story short, Justin fixed the burst pipe with a very creative solution. And we finally started fixing the downstairs bathroom. One of our freinds came over last week with a couple of his kids and he started going through the drywall to see if anything could be salvaged. It was all mildewed. We decided that since it was all nasty and had to be replaced anyway, that we would go ahead and remodel the bathroom/ laundry room the way we want it instead of the way it was. Here are a few pictures.

Keep in mind, we didn't decorate it. This is how it looked when we moved in. The 1st picture is taken from the doorway it shows the big Jacuzzi tub and this is right where the waterfall was.

This second picture is of the shower. It was in the corner of the room, you couldn't even see it from the doorway. There was a walkway about a foot and a half wide where you could open the door and climb into the shower. It was pathetic.

This is after the 1st day of demolition. As you can see a lot of the dry wall is gone and the concrete wall is showing. The toilet has been removed and temporarily placed inside the tub.

This is what's left of the shower. (Taken from the edge of the tub) The picture doesn't show it very well, but the light switches and their wiring are part of the room that got wet. When the drywall was removed, we found that the electrical wiring was wrapped around the sewer pipe (big black pipe between the shower and the light switches).

Here is a picture of the Jacuzzi tub after Justin, Devan and I removed it from the downstairs bathroom on the second day of demolition. It was definately interesting to carry a fiberglass bath tub up the stairs, out the door and place it onto a trailer to be hauled away. Even better, it didn't stay on the trailer, the next morning, we loaded it into the bed of the Dodge. It fit perfectly between the wheel wells. It looked like we had a Jacuzzi tub instead of a pickup bed. (very redneck!)

I don't have any pictures of the bathroom with all of the fixtures and drywall out yet. When I get those, I will be sure to post a remodel update.

Camaro

Justin has been putting together a 1992 25th anniversary edition Chevy Camaro since December 2008. It has been a long tiring project that has yet to end! Here are a few pics of his progress.

I'm sorry, I don't have any pictures of how it started out.

The front end was totalled and he had to rebuild it and swap the front from another camaro but here it is after the reconstruction with the motor as well.

Here is a better picture of the motor because it is so pretty. I wish I had a picture of the motor before he tore it down, cleaned it up, and painted it. You would be surprised that it's the same motor. The cool part of it is that the pistons and everything inside the motor are BRAND NEW! He didn't even have to clean them. They only have break in lube on them. That means this is a brand new rebuilt motor. The thing is we ran the numbers and it comes back as a motor from a large pickup so since it has been bored and has a few extra ponies, it is going to be too much for this Camaro. So, he will probably take it out and put it in my truck. (someday)

Here is the make shift paint booth that Justin made in our driveway so that he could paint the Camaro. He is very proud of just how Red his neck is!

Here are some before pictures.

This is what it looked like when the paint booth was constructed around it.

And, after.....

The car was originally going to be 100% silver with black accents, but the silver was not covering the way it was supposed to, so Justin added 1/8 of a quart of Jaguar Blue Metallic to the silver and he got this color. I wish I could find the right pictures, but if you look at it at a certain angle it looks silver, another angle blue, and still yet another angle makes it look green! The color turned out really neat!

So, if you know anyone who may be interested in buying a custom built 1992 25th anniversary edition Chevy Camaro. Let me know. ;o)

Crazy kids!

Well, I forgot to take pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination, but this weekend Justin and I and a couple of friends took our kids out four wheeler riding. Our friends' kids had a couple of 90cc kid 4 wheelers and of course Devan was the first one on and the last one off. He was jumping it, sliding, turning broadies, you name it, that kid was doin' it. He popped a wheelie and slid off the back! It was a little crazy, but everyone had fun and no one got hurt. KeLeeMae tried to ride the kid bikes but she needed more practice, so I let her drive mine with me on it. That was much better. I didn't get anywhere near as scared with her doing it that way. I wish that I had taken pictures, but I was having too much fun playing with the kids, enjoying the weather and just being out of the house.

I promise, next time we go out, I will try to get some pictures! :oP

Pay if Forward

Pay It Forward----I got this off of a friends blog after I commented. Have Fun!'

The Rules:

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!.

2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your Three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! SO, REMEMBER... it is good... :) Pass it forward.

Justin's business

I am still around... I think.

Wow! I'm pretty sure most people who used to read my blog on occassion have given up, but I guess I could put in a new post anyway... right?


So, here are a few pictures just to let you see what we have been up to since last April...



KeLauna and the other kids helped Daddy and his friends build a new wood fence all around our house. (Cute isn't she!)









Devan learned to play "T-ball". He was a little shy for most of the season, but was voted the "most improved player" by the last game because he really started to get into the game.









KeLee got a really cute haircut for her 4th birthday. Isn't she adorable!?!










Nicholas turned 1 year old in September. Daddy decided to put him in a can full of leaves because his parents did it to him at that age. Nicholas didn't mind, he thought it was pretty neat!







We got a new puppy. We named him Jack-Jack (like the baby on the Incredibles). He is about 4 months old now, but we got him at about 6 or 7 weeks old. He is a long haired chihuahua. Right now he is white, but he will probably turn a light brown/tan color when he gets a little older.

Devan and KeLeeMae got to visit my mom in Arizona for a full week right before school started in August. The babies and I drove down there to pick them up. We all got sick and ended up staying 3 extra days! Even grandma got sick, she missed two days of work because of it. (So did I.) I missed so much work, in fact, because of my being sick and the kids being sick that I actually got fired! Not my favorite part of the summer, but that's what happens I guess.

We had a white Christmas this year! It started snowing just before Christmas and didn't stop until two days after Christmas.

My mom came up for Christmas. We were going to go to her house, but didn't have the money. She was able to find a way to come here instead. Here's the story of how she got here...

"Santa picked her up directly from work, and flew her here towing her Bronco behind the sleigh. They arrived at about 11:45 pm Christmas eve, just in time to deliver the kids' presents."





So, as you can tell, 2008 was a pretty busy year. I won't get into the details, but it was not all good. We are hoping for a much better 2009.

Technical difficulties...

So, I have a digital camera. I know what you're thinking... what's the big deal with that? A lot of people have them now, what makes that so blog worthy?

Well....

I found out that having a digital camera isn't very convenient if you don't have the proper USB cable the thing requires to download the hundred and something pictures you have sitting in it's memory banks. So, my brother (being the expert that he is) told me to get a card reader from my local Radio Shack and download them that way. I wouldn't be able to get the pictures off of the camera's internal memory, but at least I could get the ones off of the memory card. So, I went to my local radio shack, and the guy sold me the wrong card reader and the wrong memory card.

Long story short....

After some conflict resolution, I finally ended up with the right card reader and the right card. So, now I have a way to get the pictures off of the camera, right?.? Well, my 20 month old baby girl, found my USB cables underneath a bag of dog food!?!?! Can you believe it? After all that, the cable ends up being underneath the dog food. Crazy!

Well, anyway, I now have a way to get the pictures off my camera and into the computer, but haven't done it yet. I would say it's because I'm lazy, but in reality, I just haven't had time. It only takes a few minutes to get them off the camera, but it takes a few hours to edit, save and post them to my blog. (Because you know I will.) So, when I get a few extra hours to sit at the computer and do that, I will.

Until then, I guess you'll just have to wait.

Thanks for your patience!. !. :P

Long time no posts...

Sorry, I have been busy. I haven't posted as much as I normally do.

Anyway, Justin had his back surgery on Dec. 6th and has recovered from surgery but is not healing as we had hoped. He is still very sore and unable to do the things he did before he was hurt, so we are continuing to explore other options.

I started a new job in February. I am doing insurance billing for the hospital. It's a lot different than the billing I was doing before, but I think I will enjoy it.

As for the kids, they are all doing well. We still have not gotten any of their pictures caught up yet, but I promise once I do, I'll post them so that you can all see how big they are getting.

Nicholas has started crawling. He's not up on all fours yet, but he sure can scoot! KeLauna has even started accepting him and giving him hugs and kisses and bringing him toys. She's actually acting like a big sister. I'm glad because I was really worried she would pick on him forever!

I will try to post some pictures after Easter. Think warm thoughts, remember tomorrow is the first day of spring!!! :)

Happy Halloween!!!

This year, the kids wanted to go Trick or Treating with their friends in St. George. So, we walked all around the neighborhood with my friend Tabitha and her kids. We were a good sized group, 2 adults and 9 kids. -We left the husbands at home to pass out candy. Anyway, here are some quick pictures of Devan, KeLee, and KeLauna all dressed up. (I didn't get a chance to get a picture of Nicholas in the Teddy Bear suit.)

This is not the best picture, but Devan was a pumpkin phantom thing. It was cute anyway.

After quite a bit of work on the wig to give her black hair... KeLee managed to dress up as Dora the Explorer.

KeLauna was a cow, but the hood kept covering her eyes and she couldn't see very well with it on. So, needless to say, she didn't wear it much.

Justin & I didn't dress up, but Justin did look a little strange this year...

He decided he wanted a "different look". Well, he got it! I liked the idea of him having hair, but the missing mustache and goatee is okay. All I can say is, hair grows back... In the meantime, take a look at this...

Now, we can all see the resemblance... Nicholas does kinda' look like Daddy!

Nicholas

Here he is...

Nicholas Eugene Leitner

Born Sept. 24, 2007 at 3:36 pm,

He weighed 7 lbs 2 oz & was 18 1/2 inches long.

He had a busy 1st couple of days!!!

Nicholas & Daddy

Nicholas & Big Brother, Devan

Nicholas & Big Sissy, KeLee

Nicholas & KeLauna

Nicholas & Grandma

Nicholas & Auntie Kindal