A short synopsis of Dylan’s birthday

We have been trying to take advantage of the weather.  We have a shooting range about 5 minutes from our house and we take my bow and arrow, (sometimes Ryan brings his gun) and we have fun.  The kids like to dig in the dirt or find shotgun shells.  The dogs like to run around, Kula would really enjoy fetching the arrows but we won’t let him.  🙂

And then, all of a sudden my little baby turned 2!  It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was turning one.

We sang Happy Birthday, and Dylan’s face explains exactly how he felt about our singing.

Still a little horrified.

Finally the singing was over.   Still traumatized.

Then came the cake with candles.

Life got a little better.  Maya tried to teach him how to blow out the candles.

“I get to eat the cake?”  Now finally, recovering from the traumatic singing….

What is this?

Blocks!  And finally a smile.  He plays with his blocks everyday.  It was a perfect gift.

And then he found his hat… can’t play blocks without a hat.  Pops would be proud.

Now that he is two, it is time to teach the kids how to cook.

That is Dylan’s “cheese” face.

And Maya’s.

And of course the best part.  My two two year-olds (until Monday that is, then one of them turns *gulp* three)  made perfect cookies.

Goodbye 2013

Today I was reading everyone’s posts on the New Year.  I started contemplating how different people’s years were.  Some people had the “best year of their lives” while others seemed to barely survive what life gave them during the last year.  I started to really reflect on our year.  At first, nothing really stood out.   Last new year’s I remember feeling very lost and unsure of our future.  We were still living with my parents and I was frustrated.  Now, at the end of the year, I feel like while our year wasn’t extraordinary, it wasn’t ordinary either.  It had amazing moments, and heartbreaking ones.  Here is a highlight of things that happened in 2013:

• Dylan learned to walk and graduated from Occupational Therapy.
• We decided I needed to go back to work, and finally found a job in a city we had never been too.
• Moved to Gooding, Idaho and started work again.
• Dylan began food therapy, and then Speech therapy.  He was placed on the Autism Spectrum and then taken off it because he finally started to try to verbally communicate.
• Dylan said I love you for the first time.
• Maya had surgery to remove a blockage in her kidney and help improve her hydronephrosis.
• • Only to return two weeks later from a UTI that was severely infected.
  • I got my German Shepherd for my birthday.  Love Atticus, even though he can be a bit mischievous.
  • We won our lawsuit with the IRS for our adoption
  • Ryan ran two half marathons
  • Ryan took me backpacking for the first time.
  • We got a van!
  • Ryan and I celebrated 8 years of marriage.
  • We went to Warm Lake and our family reunion at Albion.
  • Visited our friends in Utah, and got to see Tiffany and meet Terrance.

  And that sort of sums up the year.  This Christmas season,  I felt so blessed.  I can’t remember the last time I felt so happy and thankful.  I got home from visiting my mom, and got on Craigslist. I thought what do I need.  I couldn’t think of anything.  Our needs have been met.  Going back to work was a really hard decision, and I got a job that I LOVE.  I see how working at Union Middle School prepared me for it.  We love Gooding.  Yep, I said it.  We love the small town.  We had fun with one another.

  Now my plans for 2014:

  • Not to buy bread.  Only make it.  *gulp*
  • Buy a house.
  • Figure out a way for Ryan to finish school.
  • Hear Dylan start talking in sentences.
  • Potty train Maya.

  

 

Crazy November.

  November was a crazy month.  It started with Maya’s surgery.  She had a pyelopasty to remove some of the pressure in her kidney.  She was in the hospital for 3 days, before we were able to come home.  Then right before Thanksgiving, Ryan brought me an early Christmas present.  Atticus our little German Shepherd.  He is a little bit of a challenge, but we are working with him and love him all the same. Most the time. 🙂

We did have time to start our thanksgiving tradition of adding food to our cornucopia.  We didn’t get to paint them though, so next year we will paint all of them.  We aren’t sure what Maya and Dylan created. 🙂

We also raked some leaves before going to Boise for Thanksgiving.

The kids had fun at Thanksgiving and played a lot with Dakota.  It was so sweet.

We were packed up and ready to come home from Thanksgiving, and Maya broke out with a fever of 104.  We took her to Primary Health, and discovered she had another bladder infection.  She was given a blessing when we returned to Gooding, and stayed around 104 all night.  Monday I went to work, got a text from Ryan saying that Maya was in the E.R.  She had woken from her nap with a fever of 107 and started vomiting.  She was septic, meaning that her body was creating chemicals that can lead to organ shut down, or even heart failure.  She was taken by ambulance, because life flight could not fit the i.v. in the helicopter, from the Gooding E.R. to St. Lukes in Boise.  We discovered she had psuedomonas, a bacteria that is resistant to all but two antibiotics.  They had to switch her antibiotics that she was on and informed us we would be in the hospital for up to 2 weeks.  She had already been in the hospital for several days.  I stayed at my mom’s that night, and finally emptied my heart in prayer.  The next day we heard that the i.v. medications had worked so well that she would be able to finish it out with oral antibiotics.  She is on them twice a day for two weeks, and then she goes in to remove her stent.  Then they will check for regrowth, and flood her bladder with antibiotics to try to kill anything else that is still in there.  This bacteria is not common in bladder infections.  I am glad I listened to the spirit and took her to the instacare on Sunday.  Maya could have died.  We are finally home.  Yesterday she spent on the couch, and this morning I spent putting away Thanksgiving.  We found all our winter coats and things, so what could you do?  Obviously the kids wanted to play outside.  Maya is more herself today.

  She is waiting for Dylan to be ready.

They both had fun until they got snow in their faces.  Maya also lined up their boots by the door after we came in.  Now on to Christmas!

Day at the park…

Ryan and I really like to enjoy our weekends doing fun things together, so on Saturday when the weather was so nice, we decided to try out a new park.  Well, technically, it is a playground at the School for the Deaf and Blind.  The kids had a blast.  Among there favorite things to do:

The slide, obviously.

The fire truck.  Both the kids loved driving it, but Dylan couldn’t figure out how to get down.  Maya even told both Ryan and I that we had to ride in the back.

The dinosaur.   Only Maya was a little upset I took so long to take the picture.  She had other things to do.  Maya is giving Dylan a Lasso in the second picture.

And their favorite:

A toy car that dad bounced them far more crazily then their mom would have.

Life in a small town during homecoming…

If you want to know how different life is in a small town, come to Homecoming.  It started out pretty typical, with dress up days, painting of the rock, door decorating, etc.  Monday night was a bonfire, which I avoided.  Then Thursday they extended lunch and had games the rest of the day.  We had bed racing, which was hilarious, tug-of-war (which I participated in, faculty lost because the juniors cheated..) and a few other relay games.  After school, we went to the big rivalry soccer game.  The kids loved it, and it was nice to socialize outside of school.

Today was the parade.  At my school we decorated our cars, and drove downtown.  I remember a police escort but no streets were shut down, etc.  So today we walked down to watch the parade of the kids.

While we waited, the kids played in the rocks by the hotel.  We heard the hotel was the best place to go.  They actually shut down main street and blocked it all off.   Then came the floats.

 

They actually had flat beds that each class decorates.  Their theme was “skin the wolverines”  a little more violent then what would be allowed in Utah.  🙂

I love the picture of Dylan with his finger on the car.   Maya loved the band, and danced in the street.

They then had a pep rally and introduced royalty, all the sports, etc.

Oh, and the whole town shows up.
Tonight is a tailgate party that we have seen advertised in all the local businesses, followed by the Homecoming game.  We are going to have fun today!

 

 

Backpacking!

Ryan has been trying to get me to go backpacking since we got married, and he finally talked me into it.  🙂  For the record he told me, (and I quote) that it would be “a mile up hill and then level off the rest of the trip” which was 18 miles.  So when I practiced with my backpack, I practiced a mile uphill, and then level the rest of the way.   What it actually was, was up hill the ENTIRE trip.  So of course, we were all smiles before we left.  We started at Petit lake by Redfish, then walked to our first stop, which was Farley Lake.

Farley Lake was beautiful, but really steep so you couldn’t get to the water very easily.  By the time we got there, I was so tired I ate dinner and fell asleep.  The sun hadn’t even set yet.    The next morning we had breakfast and just took our time getting ready to go.  I already had blisters on one foot, and my legs hurt so bad I could barely straighten them.  I wasn’t used to this type of workout.  This day we went to Toxaway lake.  It was so gorgeous.  GORGEOUS.  I could have stayed there for weeks.  We hiked down to the lake and got an amazing spot right by the water.

These were all of us hiking to Toxaway.  I had to look down while I was walking because if I saw how much further up hill I had to go I would cry.  And I did.  A few times.

Ryan looking out over Toxaway  Lake.

We fished (I didn’t even get a nibble, Ryan caught like 10), played games, and relaxed here.  Ryan then talked to me about the next day.  At this point both my feet had blisters the size of my entire heel.  Both were also bleeding, and pretty banged up.  We decided rather than try to go up and over the above mountain to our next lake, to hike back the way we came.  I was very disappointed that I didn’t make it the whole 18 miles, (what I did ended up being 15 though) but I couldn’t make the up hill portion.    I also happened to lose the camera until we returned home, so no more pictures were taken after Toxaway.

Self portrait.  I smell worse than I look.  🙂

Ryan getting us water to do our dishes.  He really shines in the outdoors.  He just loves it.

Doing the dishes while I take pictures.  Priorities.  🙂

The way back my toes started to hurt.  I broke one toe nail clear to the bed, and another one that is currently a grey/black color.  I also had a gnarly cut from a disagreement I had with a fallen tree on my leg, but I do believe that gave me a little more credit with seasoned backpackers we past.

All in all though, I had a lot of fun.  I love hanging out with Ryan and I would just look around at this beautiful world.  It is amazing and I felt special I got to be there.  I told him next time, we just can’t be as ambitious and maybe stay in one spot a couple of days.   I also have a new appreciation for the Saints and the Pioneers that had to walk here.  We were on a pretty popular trail (according to Ryan) and I did not see any bears or cougars which were the source of most of my anxiety.  I did hear a deer eating outside our tent one night though.

We got back Sunday night, and Monday morning I got up very early to Gooding for a week of training.  August is going by way to fast.  Up next, move to Gooding and then school begins… Here we go.

Newman Family Reunion

Can I start by just saying, I was not very good at taking pictures.  With that being said, here is our experience.

We went to the reunion on Friday because we had to do some things in Boise Thursday.   We stopped in Gooding on our way to check out a little house that we are going to try to rent.  Maya and Dylan did fairly well in the car, however, Monkeys and Raccoon got in two screaming fights with Maya being their mediator.  When we got up the reunion it was perfect timing for dinner.  The facility was really nice, (Albion’s old College that they remodeled) and I was really surprised, and grateful.  After dinner the kids ran around outside until we all played minute to win it.  Maya and Dylan then spent their time manning the kiddie pool station.

Saturday we opted to not try to take the kids to City of Rocks with everyone else.  This was not because we were anti-social, but rather because I was really worried how the kids would do, and we forgot the backpack for Dylan and left the double stroller at home, so that being said, we decided to go up to Cleveland Lake and let the kids play.

The beach was really rocky, so Maya and Dylan were in heaven.  They just threw rocks in the water.  Then Maya practiced swimming, and Dylan got brave and joined.  🙂

My mom gave the kids white boards with dry-erase crayons for the ride.  It was a huge hit.  However, the crayons also worked on faces, and Maya decorated her legs, did her makeup, painted her nails, etc.  every time we were in the car.  Good thing it came off easily. 🙂

We got back just before lunch so we let the kids swim in the pool until they were shaking so bad that we forced them out.  We all laid in the sun to dry off and warm up.

There were crafts and games in the afternoon, and lots of ways for the kids to be entertained.  After lunch we took naps then played in the kiddie pools until dinner.

After dinner there was an ancestor scavenger hunt.  At each stop someone read about that ancestor, they got stickers of them to put on the family tree, and a special prize to remember them.  It was a really fun activity and I thought it was very well put together.  We ended with Grandma Newman and of course, Rootbeer floats.

The kids played until it got dark and then Maya and Ryan watched the outdoor movie, while I took Dylan and put him to bed.  (Sorry for anyone who heard him screaming all night).

I also put Dylan in overalls in memory of Grandpa.

And my proof that Brook was actually there.  Poor thing was sick the whole time.  😦

We had a lot of fun catching up with family and getting to know people that we didn’t really know that well.  I wish we could have stayed up there a few more days.  Now, I am going to put together a pitch for a cruise for our next one in 3 more years.  🙂

Fourth of July!

  Our day started with the neighborhood pancake feed and bike parade.  This year, the kids rode in the wagon decorated by Ella, destroyed by Dylan and pulled by Ella.  Dylan loved it.  He held his arms up and screamed “siren” like noises the whole time he was in the parade.  Maya was very tired and therefore the picture of her laying on the grass may have occurred more than once.

We spent the afternoon jetskiing and playing on the beach at Lucky Peak with Ryan’ dad and Heather and Owen.  Maya and Owen are best of friends and it is so cute.  She loved the jet ski, especially when Daddy took her around in circles.  It was so much fun.

We came home got ready, and went to the neighbor bbq and firework show.

It was a lot of fun. Maya and Dylan got to try out the sparklers.  Dylan loved the fireworks and Maya was nervous of the noises.

We left before the big show started.  We were all far too tired.  Lame I know, especially since the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday but overall the day was a blast.  🙂

Color Me Rad

Amber, Ella, Kylene, Kres, Ryan and I all went to the Color Me Rad race for the first time this year.   Maya wanted to walk, but after about 3 seconds, we had her in the stroller.  There were a lot of people.  Dylan slept through the whole experience, but the rest of us had a blast. 

Before…

Getting ready for our wave..

After!

Warm Lake

  We took a very spontaneous trip to Warm Lake for a week.   We used to go quite a bit as a kid, but honestly I didn’t remember much other than the black bear that tried to break into the cabin next to us, the murky water, and the fishing rock.   Ryan had never been.  We decided to celebrate my mom’s birthday in the mountains.  It was so spur of the moment that only Amber, my parents, and Ryan and I could go.  That was the only down fall.  Here are the things I learned from this trip:

The kids will start playing in the dirt the moment they get there.  According to Ella, who is seven, “It’s the mountains, you have to get dirty in the mountains”.

The lake will be a big hit.  Or (leak as Maya called it).

Apparently clothes are optional as Amber took Maya and Ella down to the lake, and when I made it down Maya was buck naked squealing with delight.

I am not as good of a fisherman as I think I am.

Ryan: 10,   Caitlin: 1 😦

Mud pies are still fun to make in the mountains.

but you get very dirty.

and having to come inside to be cleaned off is not fun.

Lemon cobbler is better with cool whip.

According to a seven year old (mentioned above) our morning walk was not fun because we spent the whole time lost.  (Ok, really only my mom was confused).

There are still tree huggers.

and balance beams can be found anywhere.

Ice cream is always a good snack.

There are still places that the water is so clear you can see clear to the bottom.

 

and the biggest hit of the trip:  Making a rock collection and then throwing it into the water.  We spent hours doing this activity.

 

Other fun activities:  The paddle boats, geo caching, the pesky fox we saw twice and heard nightly, the deer, and the osprey catching fish.

(other not fun activities I learned: Dylan can sleep anywhere and on anything, Maya likes to be in her own bed at night and gets very homesick).

Loved this week.