A Little Trip

Last week our family took a trip to Delta, Utah. Jared had been asked by his sister's, Jaelyn's, mother-in-law if he would give a fireside to her ward. We never turn down these oppertunities to serve and enlighten others so we happily agreed. We took Jaelyn and her daughter, Kirra, with us. As we were getting ready to leave Jaelyn called to let Jared know that he would be speaking on two different days to two different wards. She called back later to tell him that he was now going to speak to all the wards from one building on the first day. Then she called back again to tell him that it had turn into a stake project. We thought this was funny and wondered how something could grow so fast in a matter of minutes. We were excited to go to Delta because neither of us had been there before. It was about a two hour drive and surprisingly both the kids were excellent the whole way. Kendi even slept for half the drive. Although it was so foggy that we couldn't see any senery which made for a boring trip. When we got there the Lovell's were so hospitable. We felt at home staying with them. They are truly genuine people and we enjoyed their wholesome company. Jared's firesides went very well and many people were touched by his thoughts and experiences with personal revelation. This trip was a well needed break from our busy everyday life and it was nice to spend it in a quaint little town where we could really relax.

Racquetball

LeAnn and I have been planning to go play racquetball for some time. Today was the day that our plan panned out. Tammy and Adrian taught us all that we needed to know. They were pretty patient with us. I would try to kill the ball and instead of the ball hitting the front wall it did circles from the floor to the ceilling. LeAnn didn't always hit the ball, but when she did hit the ball, it was a perfect shot. LeAnn and I took on Tammy and Adrian at first, for more of a warm up of sorts. Then we decided to switch it up by playing boys aqainst girls, all the while, LeAnn always seemed to be pinned up against the wall trying to dodge the ball and everyones racquet. I was more of a bad luck charm gone worse. We really did enjoy ourselves. No one really cared who won and everyone cheered for each other regardless of teams. About a half hour before we left, we decide to see if Tammy could single handedly take on the rest of us. We notice in the previous games that she was running circles around the rest of us. Sure enough, to no ones surprise, Tammy won. It was a great laugh. This experience is one that LeAnn and I will always remember for some time. Thanks to Tammy and Adrian.

A Typical Day

Today was much like most days at our house. We all woke up and had breakfast together. Then we read scriptures and had family prayers. Jared started working on his computer while I did housework and played with Kendi.
In the afternoon, after Kendi's nap, Jared and I were both working in the office while Kendi was supposedly watching cartoons. Kendi would pop in every so often and was doing a good job at entertaining herself. But after about 20 minutes or so we realized that we hadn't seen Kendi in while and she was being very quiet. This is usually a sign of mischeif for Kendi. Jared left to go look for her.
After hearing Jared laugh and say, "LeAnn, you've got to come see this," I knew that Kendi was up to some creative new game that she came up with to keep herself busy.
Sure enough, like always, Kendi knows how to make us laugh so that we can't be mad at her for anything. She had opened the diaper wipes container on the couch and was taking them out one by one and wiping her doll's bottom and then going into the kitchen to throw each wipe away in the garbage can. She was going back and forth with each wipe. She had used up nearly half the container before we got to her. I told her that she was a good mommy, but we need to put the wipes back into the container. Luckily, I had just been to the store so the only thing in the garbage were plastic bags. I helped her put them back and we all got to work.
Kendi surprises us with something funny on a regular basis. I'm so grateful for these typical days that we have. I enjoy being at home with Kendi and Jared where it is safe and warm. I know that we are very blessed.

Newest Available Art from Jared

Snow Day

Yesterday, we all decided to go sledding. We haven't been sledding in a long time and Kendi hasn't ever been sledding. So . . . since it was such a beautiful day and there was still enough snow on the northern sidehills we thought it would be perfect. We took Tammy with us. We found a little hill that small enough that no one else was there. It was just the right size for Kendi. She was able to go down it by herself without crashing or picking up to much speed. We spent her down backwards on her tummy so she could see us and she laughed the whole way down and then sat at the bottom of the hill laughing in the sled. She was so cute and knows how to have a lot of fun. We threw snowballs, made snowman, had sled races, created snow angels and sled trains.
When we got home Kendi was so tired she just laid on the couch with her blanket till it was time to go to bed.

A Brag on Kendi

Kendi is our little sweetheart. She has taught us patience, incomprehensible love, true joy and how to live life through the eyes of a spirited child. She makes everything the most fun it could possibly be. She surprises everyone with her wit and brilliance.

She will be two years old in March. She doesn't look like a typical two year old because she is tall and has a ton of really long hair. She is also speaking in full phrases now too. She can say anything that we say on a regular basis. She has learn several fun songs and has an incredible memory. Like recently, we started to take down all the Christmas decorations that we had put up in December. Kendi kept saying "Mama's turn, Kendi's turn." It took me a moment to remember that when we had put the decorations up we had taken turns with her so that she wouldn't try to grab everything. She remembers things that I had completely forgotten about.

Kendi also remembers her friend, Abby. She had only played with Abby once at Grandma Bulloch's house. While Abby was there we tried to help Kendi share her toys. Several months later, Kendi picked up her orange ball and said, Abby's?" Grandpa Bulloch responded, "That's scary."

When Kendi was an infant she suffered from benign infantile spasms. When we realized that her constant fussiness was because of these spasms we alerted the doctor quickly. We knew that this could be serious when the doctor got us on the fast track to a neurologist up at Primary Children's Hospital. It normally takes six months to get in, but we were up there within a week. Before we left for the trip up north Jared gave Kendi a priesthood blessing. Kendi went from have up to a hundred spasms a day to not having any at all. The only proof we had to show the neurologist was a video we had recorded before we knew what the spasms were. As soon as the neurologist saw the video he immediately got Kendi in to have an EEG. Luckily we were able to see the results right there and they came back as normal. Later we found out through some blood test that Kendi had Hypercalcemia which is high blood calcium. Her calcium wasn't being absorbed into her bones and affecting her nervous system. Kendi's blood was monitored until she finally outgrew the high blood calcium. The doctor tells us that it was a result of how fast she was growing. Now that all this is over and in the past we try remember how blessed we are. We hope that we can help Kendi understand how much God loves her and how blessed she was as an infant.

Kendi is an incredible little person and she surprises us by how she continues to get better all the time.

A special thanks to Jaelyn for taking these great photos.

River Rocks

We spent a day in Zion taking pictures for a new painting. All of us had so much fun! Kendi was a little trooper. We were surprised at how well she handled the long day.