THE WEBB FAMILY: 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! and a little of everything else...

So, since I've been on many a blogging guilt-trips lately, I decided since I had some quiet time at work I'd start to fill in the gaps on the many fun happenings at the Webb house over the past few months. Pictures will just have to come later!!

This month has been a crazy busy one and I for one am glad Christmas is done and over, however, I'd love to keep my tree and lights up for awhile longer. We had lots of Christmas parties and programs to attend this month, and braved the cold to go see the Nativity out to Tuachan which is a family tradition. We sat up towards the top, but I'm sure everyone heard Camrie yell as loud as possible throughout the whole performance "Go horse, go, go fast!" while the donkey was on stage. That came from watching the NFR the first of the month, and her standing right in front of the TV, jumping up and down, yelling for the horses to run fast!    I hoped that for as many times as we saw Santa this year, that Camrie would eventually warm up to him, but clearly that wasn't going to happen.  When you ask her what Santa says, she answers so cute..."HO, HO, HO M-E-R-R-Y CHRISTMAS" then adds, "Santa....scary!"
We had lots of fun getting ready for Christmas by making Gingerbread houses on Thanksgiving day with all the Smith cousins, we also made tons of cookies (eaten mostly by me!) we made cute little baggies full of 'mixed up snoman parts' for Braxton to give to his friends for gifts. We also made reindeer food & sprinkled it out on the front yard, and made sure Santa's 'magic keys' were ready & on the door Christmas Eve so Santa could get in that night. We loved driving around to see the pretty lights and listening to Christmas music. Tanner & Camrie sing Jingle Bells, and Frosty the Snowman so cute, and they sang it over, & over, & over.....& a week later they are still singing it!!
Braxton spent the first week of the holiday break & Christmas with his dad which made for a pretty quiet house, but we still had a great time Christmas morning/day. Santa brought new bikes for all 3 kids, and they have had so much fun on them. Camrie is so cute on her pink Barbie bike with her pink helmet that is way too big for her, yet she insists on wearing it. She sustained her 1st bike accident because her helmet had slid down over her eyes and she couldn't see and tipped over! Santa was good to all of us, and we are so very blessed. We spent most of the holiday focusing on service and trying to teach the kids the importance of helping those who are not as fortunate as us, and how it is so much better to give than to receive. Tanner's favorite gift (which was of no suprise) was the new Thomas the train set that Braxton picked out for him.  These trains go EVERYWHERE with Tanner & the funniest thing is the paper that comes with the train set to advertise all the other trains and sets available has been glued to Tanner's fingers since Christmas! He shows us the paper, asks us to read it, & at least 6x's a day to point out on it what we want for Christmas. Troy has made quite a few copies of the paper because it can only be taped and retaped so many times as it goes to bed with him, to the potty, in the car, to the store, & he shed HUGE alligator tears this morning when he tried to take it into daycare and this mean old mom made him leave it in the car! If we would have known it before, Santa would've brought 15 Thomas the Train set advertisements for Christmas!! We hope you all had a Merry Christmas too and enjoyed the spirit of the season as we did.

This month also brought news of big changes to Troy's job at the InstaCare. He will no longer be the manager of the River Road InstaCare starting in January. Out of 30-ish clinics in the SouthWest region, he is the only nurse-manager, and is too expensive to pay a clinic manager at his nursing salary. He will be going back to patient care and doing 3 - 12 hr shifts, but is being moved to the Hurricane InstaCare. While he is so excited to get back to what he loves doing most....he isn't so excited about the whole Hurricane thing, & hopes that it will be only a temporary move, until something opens back up at RR. He as been at RR since it opened about 14 years ago, and has been quite emotional about leaving all his great employees, they have been so great to him. He was so overwhelmed at the wonderful surprise gift that his staff gave to him at their party this year, that he couldn't even talk!

Now that Christmas is over, I can really focus on getting ready for our new baby to arrive, which in reality could be anywhere between today and Feb 23rd.  We are all very excited, and can't wait for him to get here. I'm 32 weeks and feeling good, except for my L hip which rolls forward, making my L leg longer, and makes me walk like an old arthritic granny in the mornings. I went to Physical Therapy for a couple months and loved the water therapy, they showed Troy how to roll my pelvis back into place when it goes out and I figure I can do the stretches & exercises on my own and just deal with it for a little while longer.
I have been on Progesterone shots again, & this time around they aren't bad considering how thick the serum is. Troy really does give good shots (yes, it's true!) only once, I've had to ask just what the heck I did to him to have it hurt so much! It's crazy to think that in 4 weeks baby could be here, (all my kids have come at 36 wks) it's gone so fast, & I don't feel very prepared! But it will all be ok and maybe by then we will be set on a name!!

The kids are all good and keep us on our toes...Braxton is doing well in school this year and loves being in 1st grade. He is becoming quite the little reader, and i think amazes himself with the things he learns as he reads! He is going to be a big kid, he already towers over quite a few of his friends, and his hands are not that much smaller than mine! He is becoming more interested in sports and I'm glad about that, hopefully his coordination will improve, talk about a clutz!!!
Both Tanner and Camrie have moved up in their classes at the DRMC child development center. Troy & I get way to attached to their teachers, so this latest move was harder on us! Tanner is a Dragonfly and is so happy to be with his friends that moved up before him. He is almost totally potty trained, and has been accident free since a few days before christmas when I told him that Santa doesn't bring presents to little boys who poop in their pants....TAH-DAH!! He gets so very excited & proud when he goes on his own and sings the toilet paper song out loud to himself when he isn't on his little potty that sings when he goes. Camrie is now 19 months old and a Firefly. She keeps her teachers laughing all day with her big-girl vocabulary. She is such a smartie and has the cutest personality ever. She loves to play dress ups, & color. She also likes to get 'pretty' in the mornings with mom, & have her hair put in piggy tails, which she promptly pulls out! Her favorite things lately are toothpaste and toothbrushes. Troy has been through several toothbrushes the past few months just b/c he's not so sure where they've been. Maybe he'll wise up and put it away where she can't get it....the other day I found my makeup bag in Braxton's bottom dresser drawer after looking all morning for it, although Braxton swears he didn't do it, nothing is safe with Camrie on the loose!

Troy finished another project on my list this past month that turned out so great, making me a very happy wife! I have wanted to make our pantry shelves deeper so we can have a bit more storage and to put bypass doors in front of them, to hide my unorganized mess, and to keep the kids from standing in front of the pantry gazing at snacks and limiting their endless grazing. Braxton was a great help in painting the laundry room doing whatever he could to be at Troy's side with tools. Thanks Troy for being so patient with Braxton helping him learn to be as handy as you!

I had a great time in November with my mom & sisters for our annual mom/daughter weekend, and also our annual Christmas shopping day with my dad and sisters in December where we shop for my mom. I'm so glad my family is so close and we have such fun traditions that we all look forward to.

October was a busy month, Braxton turned 7 and had a fun party in our new backyard with lots of friends. I flew to Delware for a couple days to attend an Ultrasound conference with a co-worker to learn how to scan baby hips, and while there we braved the rain and went to Game One of the Philadelphia Philles World Series Playoffs and was there to witness the Phillies now infamous 'no-hitter' which was awesome! We also went and saw the Liberty Bell. Oh, and we did learn a thing or two at the conference!!   The day after I got home from Delware was a special day to share with the Marshall family as they were sealed as an eternal family in the temple and also had Josh blessed.

That pretty much sums up in a nutshell the highlights of the last few months. Hopefully it won't be so long in between posts again and I can avoid the non-blogger guilt trips!!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TROY!! (New York style)

Last September, as we watched the US Open and Troy once again dreaming of being there in person...I decided that we were going to the 2010 tournament in New York, and that it would be a suprise for him. I began looking into hotels, tickets, flights, to get an idea of how much, and just what I was getting myself into. This honestly was the LONGEST year of my life!! I guess it was all suppose to be...tennis tickets were amazingly cheaper than I expected, I got a great deal on flights, and found an awesome new hotel in lower Manhattan for a great deal by NY standards.
On Troy's birthday, I felt way guilty as I didn't really give him much, but told him the rest of his present was delayed by about a week. I waited to give him his big surprise while camping with my family. I sent him on a scavenger hunt to other campsites for things one would find in NY. He of course didn't get it until he read his card with a poem and opened another envelope which were copies of our 2010 US Open tickets. He was so suprised and of course I cried (we'll just chalk that up to hormones!) We spent the rest of the month planning the rest of our trip.

Opening his suprise!

welcome to NYC!

Meet Diane

Last Saturday FINALLY arrived and we left early for Vegas. My cousin Emily was SO great to let us leave our car at her house for the week and also took us and picked us up from the airport. Thanks Em, we owe you big time at our time share!! The flights were great both ways, except we only got to sit by each other from Chicago to NY because of open seating, and full flights on SouthWest, and nobody was very willing to trade around with us. Our total flight time was about 6.5 hrs and with time changes we got in around 8 pm. We were so caught up with getting our transportation and finding Metrocards (which all the stands and machines at the airport were out of) , that we were on the bus and headed into the city before I noticed my luggage said 'Diane Long', so we got to the nearest subway station bought our METRO passes and caught the next bus back to the airport to switch luggage. Our flight was apparently the last one for the night, and all the Southwest crew had left so the very helpful airport people just said to come back early the next morning. My phone had died, but we called my voicemail and luckily Southwest had left a message saying they had my bag and we had probably picked one up the wrong one by mistake. Troy felt bad for grabbing the wrong suitcase, but it was all good and we laughed it off, he called me 'Diane' for the rest of the night. I said if that was the only thing that went wrong then we were in good shape, so we took our borrrowed suitcase which we affectionatley named 'Diane' to find our hotel.... read on... Our first subway experience was fun, yet CROWDED, & we both were nervous. I wasn't sure my stomach could keep the smell of mixed body odors packed that close contained but I managed. When we got to our hotel, they informed us that they didn't have a room for us, even tho we had called the night before to confirm our reservations, & everything was good to go. They put us in a cab and sent us to the Carlton hotel a few blocks away for the night on them. The next morning we got up early took a cab back to our original hotel. They were very appologetic, reimbursed us for the cab rides, gave us breakfast and kept our other luggage while we went to the aiport to exchange bags.

New York Yankees

After the whole suitcase drama and getting back and settled into our hotel early, we headed out to the Bronx to find Yankee Stadium for the game with the BlueJays. The expression on Troy's face was priceless as we walked in and saw how close our seats were, he isn't a Yankees fan, but just being there and the whole game experiance was enough to maybe 'win him over' he says. The Yankees lost, however, a BlueJays player who is from Utah hit a homerun so that was cool. After the game we toured the Empire State Bldg and met a couple from Idaho who had friends from Beaver. It is amazing to think that the bldg was built in only 14 months!! We have never walked so much in our entire lives! We pretty much covered all of Manhattan from Central Park to Wall Street which is as far as you can go before falling into the Hudson river! We also spent every night in Times Square, which was crazy anyway..I can't even being to imagine what it is like on New Year's Eve!!! We relied on the subway and walking to get around, honestly for the price of parking I can't imagine how anyone would drive, or put up with the hassel of traffic. We rode at the very minimum 8 subways a day, on Thursday we counted around 16. The $27.00 we each paid for a 7 day unlimited metrocard was worth every cent!

Here is the condensed version of the rest of the week:

* Monday: Day session of US Open (major sunburned/blistered knees for Andrea, OUCH!), Times Square, Rockerfeller Plaza, took a ride in a PediCab & knew our lives were over...crazy drivers!!

* Tuesday: Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island (met a couple from Hurricane there), Ground Zero tour, Wall Street/Financial district, Trinity Church, went to see the play 'Wicked'. David Letterman, Radio City Music Hall, Times Square. Took lots of pictures for my sister Stephanie of crazy busy NYC sidewalks.

* Wednesday: US open day session (only watched a doubles match). We were so excited to be able to watch Roger Federer play this day, but then totally bummed after realizing he was playing at night. Since he was the big reason behind the trip I bought tickets for the evening session so we could go. We melted during the day and froze our butts off in the crazy wind that night, but Troy was so excited and it was totally worth it. We went back into the city for lunch at a cute corner deli and walked through Central Park, found the Manhattan temple, back out to the Open that night.

*Thursday: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!! Went to the TODAY show and made our television debut, met Merideth Viera & Ann Curi. I'm pretty sure we walked more this day than ever! Canal Street to bargin with the street vendors, Chinatown, found the only LDS church listed in lower Manhattan in a scary part of town on the 4th floor of an office bldg, walked over Brooklyn bridge, more Central Park, Carnegie Hall, St. Patricks Catherdral (2 hrs to find!) Rode bus out to check into new hotel by airport, rode bus/subway back into city for a session at Manhattan temple, dinner at Hard Rock in Times Square, subway to Grand Central Station for Cheesecake at Juniors. Troy forgot the plan and thought we were headed back to Queens, I jumped up & said hey we need to get out here & so we were slow getting out of the subway. I got out in time, & Troy stuck his hand out to stop the door like an elevator and about got it cut off. We just laughed & waved bye to each other and off he went down the track. I just sat on a bench and waited alone in the subway, hoping he was coming back fairly quick since he had my bag with my wallet, phone, & Metrocard in it. Without my Metrocard, I was stuck right where I was! Luckily another couple came and sat down by me and it only took about 10 mins for Troy to get back, of course the next stop was the furthest away from Grand Central, clear across the East River into Queens. We spotted each other as the train came cruising into the station and we were both glad to be back together. We said had that happened on our first night in the city we would've both been paranoid, but by Thursday we were pretty comfortable with the whole subway thing and our surroundings. Long story short, Juniors was closed and so we headed back out to our hotel in Queens without the very famous NY cheesecake.

* Friday: Off to the airport again (really who goes to the airport 4 times during a vacation!!) this time on our way home. Plane was late getting in so we sat on the tarmack for an hour waiting to take off, which gave us exactly 10 mins to literally SPRINT from one end of the airport to the other terminal to catch our connecting flight in Chicago to Vegas. All you mothers know how running with a full bladder goes...glad I had a jacket to tie around my waist!! We made it just in time and so did our luggage which we were sure wouldn't make it. Our flight to Vegas was interesting as it was filled with a big group of 'just turned 21' kids that were basically wasted before we even landed. We were glad to land and find Emily & Easton waiting for us. We quickly headed home to Grandma and our kids. They were all so excited to see us and Grandma had survived the week!

As Troy puts it, 'It was the best week of my entire life'. We had a great time and hope to go back. There is so much that I left out but this is long enough! Oh there was a movie being filmed on the street in front of our hotel in Manhattan, it's called 'premiun rush' and will be out in 2012. Kind of cool to see the set. The dark hair kid from 3rd Rock From the Sun is the main character.

Thanks Nick and Paige for helping my mom with the kids and picking them up from daycare. HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU to mom for staying the week while we were gone and even sacrificing her anniversary to be in St. George. We were glad dad came down and you at least went to dinner...We love you and OWE you big time! Happy Birthday Troy, I love you and FYI, it will be awhile before we make it to Wimbledon!! :) Here are lots of pictures!!

First sesison of the US Open

Troy at Louis Armstrong stadium

Roger Federer on the JumboTron after his quarterfinal win

Federer in action

Me in the middle of the jumbotron in Times Square taking a picture of us (Troy is in the red hat behind me not paying attention)

Troy swiping his Metrocard to get on the 28th street subway

Troy holding up Manhattan!

9/11 memorial

Ground Zero

Me & the Egyptian hotdog man

Wall Street

"We're movin on up..."

Wicked

Manhattan temple

Meredith Viera - Today Show

Merideth out on the plaza- Rockerfeller plaza

View of lower Manahattan from Empire State Bldg 82 floor

Time Square

Our wild ride in the Pedicab

So the news is out.....

Yes, you all guessed it...if you haven't heard all already....we are adding one more to our family. It was kind of a sort of a talked about surprise, if that makes any sense. We had thought about it, but wasn't really sure, so we just decided to see what happens and it happend REALLY fast! Baby is due around Feb. 23, but as always we plan for a month ahead. So for some crazy reason I'm thinking I may want this one to be a suprise! Am I crazy? Can I really do it?? Troy doesn't think so and thinks I'm crazy, I don't think he can make it without knowing!! I've done my share of peeking and checking on baby, but haven't even tried to look & at 16 weeks the gender should be more than obvious. With my other kids, by now we would have known for a few weeks.
I gave all my boy clothes away up to about 18 months because as soon as we found out Camrie was a girl, I knew I was done. So, me being the very prepared and organized type of person I'm not sure I can bring a boy home to pink clothes!! So we will see what the next few weeks bring and what happens at my 'official' ultrasound. For about a week, it looked like there were 2 sacs, Troy & I were both a complete mess! He was ready to call my mom and tell her we were moving to Beaver!! Luckily it was just a small bleed, that has taken care of itself. (Whew!)
We decided to tell my family about a month ago at our annual Smith family campout up Beaver mountain. My mom had scheduled family pictures first thing when we all go up there, so Troy and I pulled the photographer aside while nobody was around and asked him to yell before one of the pictures "everybody say Camrie's going to be a big sister!" and then to take the picture so we can get everyone's reaction. He didn't do it quite the way we asked and so it took a few times of saying it for everyone to catch on, but they are all excited. My dad told my mom while walking back to our trailers that we was so excited because he was afraid that Camrie was going to be the last of the grandkids, and had been hoping for another one.I will post our family pictures when I can get my hands on them!!
The rest of our campout was fun despite the drizzling rain. Since the first week of August is usually when we camp and that is Troy's birthday, & Tanner's is the 16th we celebrate their birthdays up there. We had a fun construction party for Tanner building graham cracker houses, playing fun construction relays, presents, and an easy cake...crumble up a choc cake, mix with choc pudding and dumped in the back of a dump truck! We were so glad that Nick, Paige, & Josh were able to come up and spend one night with our family. We wanted everyone to be there for our announcement and they are certainly considered part of the Smith family. My oldest sister hadn't met Josh yet and she couldn't get enough of him!

cooking breakast for the picky eaters in mom's trailer

Tanner's first canoe ride

Brave Aunt Valerie Brinley, Braxton & Haley

Taking g.pa's paddleboat for a spin.

Tanner's party. Graham cracker house construction

Claudia (Caroline's nanny) hanging out with Josh

Present time

Braxton Fishing

Troy's birthday was the highlight of my week!! But I will add that to the next post!!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Way To Go Braxton!!

So I'm a week or so late in posting but better late than never. Braxton's kindergarten graduation from Sunset Elem was May 19th, 2010. All the kinder classes performed some cute songs together and then each class went back to their own rooms for presentations and treats. Braxton got a cute certificate and some bubbles. The last few days of school were fun, they got to eat lunch in the lunchroom so they would know what to expect for next year. Each child was sent home with a small white board, dry-erase pen, eraser, timer, math book, and various pages to keep up their skills through out the summer. Braxton was sick the last day of school and was sad to miss it, but Ms. Callahan called to check on him and had us come in the next day to get his report card and find out who his teacher will be for 1st grade. We haven't officially heard back that we will be able to attend Sunset next year, but because they placed him in a class we are supposedly ok, the secretary was pretty sure we had nothing to worry about. What a pain...we live like 50 yards from the boundary line (which happens to be Nick & Paige's back yard fence!) separating Sunset and Arrowhead so each year we have to fill out a boundary waiver and are not guarenteed a spot. Troy and I were the room parents for Braxton's class, in charge of the parties, and going on field trips. I loved being involved in the class and getting to know his teacher and his classmates. One of Braxton's little friends, Haley, will be going to Three Falls Elem. in Hurricane next year and he is bummed. They also played together at Country Kids daycare after school. Braxton did very well in school and seems to really like math. I am amazed at some of the things he was taught in kindergarten, I'm pretty sure I didn't learn a lot of those things until 1st grade!