2009 Kick-off Event

Ryan is participating in an IDA training conference. He's been asked to speak on selling the product, the CDRP (Collision Deductible Reserve Plan.) I think he's a great public speaker, and even a better salesman. He's nervous, but I'm sure he'll do fine. He stayed up all night working on a power point presentation he could be happy with.
The conference is today. They're calling it the "2009 Kick-off Event" and will be at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, Washington: http://www.idaleaders.com/2009kickoff.pdf
Ryan will stay at Bill Moreland's house in Hayden, ID. Bill is Ryan's sponsor, they have lots of work planned. Then Ryan will be coming home on Wednesday evening.

Here are our official IDA photos, they were taken at the event in Portland, OR in October. They'll be in the information they hand out, on the internet, on the training videos, and who knows were else!?
Ryan isn't sure how he feels about having his blown up larger than life and projected on a screen behind him while he speaks. I think that might be a little awkward myself! But over all I think they're not such bad pictures.


I think it's so awesome that Ryan has this neat oppurtunity to be seen as a leader and hang out with the head honchos! http://www.idaleaders.net
Canton is really missing his Daddy and will be excited to have him come home!

All of December

We had an eventful December. I think December is always a crazy and busy month as you scurry around trying to get everything ready for Christmas. Plus you have to schedule around family and church get togethers, there's so much to do, the calender fills up so fast, and before you know it the month is gone!
Now that I'm older it flies by faster and faster - as a child the month seemed to be plenty long enough. I've always enjoyed the season and all that comes with it! Family, parties, presents, snow, sledding, Christmas cookies, pageants, and caroling - But I feel like I kind of missed out this year!
Everyone in our house has been sick off and on since Thanksgiving, and we're still fighting it! SO that took some fun out of the holidays as well! But here are the pictures I've been meaning to post!

Uncle Quinten

Probably the most anticipated event of our December 2008, even more so than Christmas and Santa Claus, was the visit from my brother. Quinten is in the Air Force and has been stationed at Ramstein AFB in Germany for the last 2 1/2 years. The last time we saw Quinten, Canton was only 6 months old!
Our boys were all so excited to have their Uncle Quinten come visit that they could hardly sleep! All of them ended up on the hide-a-bed with him by morning. It was so fun to see him!

Cookie Party

The first REAL holiday celebration we participated in was a day for cookie making at my Aunt Bonnie's house here in Pocatello.

Bonnie is so much fun! I thought cookie making was a great idea for a party! I think we may have eaten more than we actually took home, but it's all part of the fun, right!?

My Daddy is so funny! I ask him to pose for a picture and this is what I get! After I looked at the picture I'd just taken I started laughing and he said, "What?" I told him that all the pictures I had of him were goofy! His response was, "I'm not so handsome, so I HAVE to be goofy!"

Here's my awesome cousin Carrie mixing up the cookie dough for the lemony Christmas trees.

This batch was a little over done, but I think they're so clever! You roll the dough into snakes (my kids loved that part!) then frost them and put a star on the top and sprinkles for ornaments! They're great!

My Mommy was there too! She's making peanut butter balls to stick a Hersey's kiss in!

Here's my cousin Michelle! I love the mice! Michelle is so creative, and made many different kinds!

Tate wanted to make a gingerbread man! We didn't have any gingerbread dough, so he molded one out of the peanut butter dough and decorated him. He was very proud of his little man!

This is before he got eaten. (He didn't run so very fast)

The Dunn Christmas Party

Every year we participate in the annual Dunn Family Christmas party. Ryan's Grandma Green was a Dunn before she married Grandpa Green. So this party includes all of her siblings, their kids, and grand kids, great-grand kids, and even a few great-great-grand kids.
We have a huge pot luck dinner, Santa comes and brings a gift for each of the kids (under 12) then we play a few games and go home.
The party has been held at the church in McCammon for years and years, but this year we broke from tradition and held it at a church in Pocatello.

Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived loaded down with gifts and candy canes.
(See? Two bags!)

The kiddos waiting for Santa to call their names.

Oran with Santa - Mrs. Claus has his present.

Canton with Santa.
Canton was so cute. He was just hanging on the edge of his seat the whole time, and when they read his name, "Canton Green," He immediately jumped to his feet, raised one arm in the air and headed straight for Santa, tripping over a few cousins on the way. Mrs. Claus helped him back to his feet and up to where Santa was sitting.
He was all smiles until just before this was taken when Ryan said, holding the camera, "Canton have you been good this year?" Then he got this expression and said "Well, I've tried REALLY hard!"

Tate telling Santa what he wanted him to bring him for Christmas.

Tate got an Iron Man action figure from Santa.

Oran opening his gift.

Canton is way excited about his Batman!

Ryan's Birthday

December 24, is not the best day for a birthday. But our Daddy has that one, every year! We went to Preston this year to spend Christmas with my parents and my brother Quinten. SO for Ryan's birthday we had a nice big dinner, presents, cake and even balloons!

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My Mom got these balloons for Ryan - I thought they were funny! It says "Oh, NO, the big 30 - (Three OH)" It made me laugh. My Mom was apologetic, and kept saying, it was the only one they had..." I thought it was great!

Look, even candles! Like a real birthday!
Do you think he made a wish?

Canton is ready for some cake!
(Which he later threw up, all over his bed!)

After we finished dinner:I made way too much pasta!

I kind of miss all the Christmas Eve traditions I grew up with. Caroling, a pageant, eggnog and getting everything ready for Santa. But now we have a new tradition, celebrating Ryan's birthday. I guess that's the price I pay for marrying someone born on December24!

Christmas!

My Mom and I - after all the present opening.

I made her hat (remember I said everyone was getting a gift from my yarn collection?) She was glad to have something to hide her unwashed hair, and I think it's cute! Maybe I'll make myself one...

Santa brought a life sized WALL.E! Here he is guarding the stocking until the little ones get up.

Oran's monkey sat next to the stockings and waited for morning.

Poor Canton was so sick! He threw up in the night. And when it was time to open presents, he has a fever of 103, wasn't at all interested in presents and just wanted me to hold him. I felt so bad for him.
That night, he was still pretty sick. He was crying in the night so I went and got him, he seemed all confused, and said is Santa coming tonight? He was sad when I told him Santa had come last night and we'd already opened all the presents. He couldn't remember and asked if he'd gotten any presents. How sad!


Oran really liked the monkeys I made (I crocheted 3 monkeys, one for each boy) I tried to get a picture of Oran hugging his monkey, but I wasn't quick enough. But he kept hugging him, patting his head and singing him songs.

My Daddy and Oran. I can't believe how big he's getting. In this picture my baby looks HUGE!

Grandma gave all of our boys a new chair. Here's Tate sitting in his. He got a lot of space stuff from Santa, here he's holding one of his little astronauts.

Once Canton's fever got to 105 I put him in the tub to try and cool him off/break the fever, and he fell asleep in the tub. What a sick little boy.

We had an interesting Christmas. It was different than any we've had in the past and I'm sure we won't forget it soon. Canton seemed to start feeling better around 3 or 4 pm on Dec. 26. And then Oran was sick from 5:00 on. It's not fun to have sick kids, and it's even harder when you're away from Home.
Here I am with a sick Oran.

Any of you who live in the area will remember how much it snowed this Christmas. It started snowing in the evening on the 24th and snowed steady ALL day on Christmas. We were all snowed in, and there was no way we were going anywhere until the 27th - when we did head home. In time for Ryan to go to work at 11:00.

This is probably the most unattractive picture ever taken (plus it's fuzzy) But it's the only one we have with our whole family and Quinten. My Mom took this right before we headed home to Pocatello. Quinten headed back about an hour after we left.

Happy New Year!

I haven't posted in so long, I don't know where to begin! And although I have good intentions, I don't really have time to give a full update (maybe at nap time!)
BUT I hope everyone is enjoying the new year!

Tate says....

Tate and Canton have both been into "Knock, Knock" jokes lately. Some are funny and some... not so much. But this morning they were both eating breakfast and doing "Knock, Knock" jokes back and forth (even Oran kept saying "Knock - Knock!!") Tate must have gotten tired of that game though.
Canton Said "Knock, Knock"
Tate's response was, "So, come in ALREADY!!"
I thought it was kind of funny.

"...The Goose is Getting FAT!!"

We woke up this morning to falling snow and it FINALLY feels like December! All the holiday preparations have seemed a little odd without the usual snow flakes and slush, but now we're there so it's REALLY time to get down to business!
We have less money to spend on Christmas this year than we've EVER had in all our five years of marriage, so we're getting a little creative. I have decided to make EVERYONE'S gifts out of yarn! I have quite the collecting and I am quite proficient at both knitting and crochet. So we'll just have to see how creative I can be! PLUS I need to get crackin' only 17 days left to go, and these things take time! The clock is ticking!

"Gotta Dance"

Tate wanted to "Show off our dance moves" So, here goes.
Silly kids

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Living with Superman

Canton is convinced that he IS Superman! He refuses to wear anything that is not red or blue. And insists on wearing a cape everywhere he goes! And, of course, if he's wearing a cape he has to run EVERYWHERE so it billows behind him. I'm tired of all the running and jumping but most of all I'm tired of him insisting that I refer to him as "Superman" if I call him "Canton" he either will simply ignore me, and not respond of he will yell, "No, I'M SUPERMAN!!!"


He's always claiming to hear people calling for help, at which he will drop whatever he's doing (reading a story, eating dinner, whatever) and run off to save someone who is in need of his assistance.
He jumps off of everything! It's not so bad in the house when it's couches and beds, the fall isn't too far and the carpet breaks his fall. But he leaps off with arms out stretched and often lands in a full out belly flop. Occasionally I'll hear him say "Ow!" to which I just shake my head and wonder why he doesn't learn!
It's when we're out of the house that I worry! He does the leap and belly flop out of the car sometimes on to our concrete driveway or on to asphalt parking lots. We were at Lowe's the other day when he heard a cry for help and lept out of the cart. Luckily I caught him before he landed on the hard floor. People must think we are very abusive parents if you look at all his scrapes and bruises!I took him to Fred Meyer the other day he was standing next to me and I turned to get the baby out of his car seat and Canton took off. Head bent one arm out in from of him as he full out ran from our car to the front doors of the store, all with cars going this way and that. I was not happy! And when i told him he couldn't do that he simply responded, "No, Mommy, I fly way fast, the cars can't hit me!!"

ARGH!!!
I'm tired of living with Superman! When will it end!?

Tate has been Tagged!

Tate was tagged by Matilee.

I have the opportunity to say five neat things about Tate.

Then, we get to tag more people.

1. Tate is a wonderful artist. He loves to draw all day everyday and makes some very neat pictures. He loves to take requests from his little brother Canton, he'll draw what Canton asks him to and then Canton colors it.

2. Tate loves to learn new things. He's like a little sponge, he sucks up all the knowledge he can. When he finds a subject he is interested in he does all he can to find out more about it. He'll read books and even use our google toolbar to find out more about the things that he's interested it.

3. Tate likes to go to primary. He's always excited for Sunday. He loves to put on his "missonary clothes" and get ready for church. Throughout the week he is always excited when it's his turn to offer the prayer and he reminds us to read our scriptures every night.

4. Tate always does what he is told. He realizes the importance of being obedient, and even when he does it grudgingly, whatever it is always gets done.

5. Tate likes to sing. He's always making up songs about pre-school or books, or movies. He has excellent pitch and often creates new lyrics to a tune he's already familiar with. It's pretty funny to listen to his made up words.

This is a fun activity filled with goodness and happy thoughts! The children that are "kiddie tagged" next are:

Allie Wageman
Zander Slinker
Esther Fielding
A.J. White
Tyler Miles
Anna Stewart
Jace Grant

Lots of Doctor Visits!

Our trip to the ER for Tate's stitches was only the beginning of our medical adventures in the past few weeks.
Tate needed stitches after falling getting out of the tub on Halloween (which was Friday) that following Sunday I was getting ready for church. I heard Canton screaming so I came out of the bathroom to see what was going on. I turned around in time to see my baby grab the barrel of my hot curling iron with both hands and then drop it on his foot! So he had bad burns on both hands and on one foot.
We got him all bandaged up and he seemed fine, but in need of extra love. So Oran stayed with me through the meetings, rather than going to nursery, and in Sacrament meeting threw up all over his Dad, the pew and the floor. Ryan took him home while I did my best to clean up the mess.
Tuesday night and all day Wednesday Tate had the yuckos and was throwing up and miserable. Canton threw up once on Wednesday, but was fine after that.
We had to make a second trip to the ER on Wednesday because Tate had a bad ear infection. He had been pulling onhis ear all day so at bed time I asked him to bring me a Q-tip so I could clean it out, and see if that helped. I sat down to clean out his ear and discovered that it was clear full of stuff!
Tate is always putting things in his right ear. I tell him not to, but it's a habit he has. When he's drawing he'll put the end of his pencil in his ear, when he's playing, toys. When he lays down to sleep every night he puts a tassel from his blanket in his ear. It's always bothered me, but I never thought it was a real problem.
I got my tweezers and pulled out balls and balls of different colored lint, and bits and pieces of paper. It smelled bad, like, puss, infections and dirty socks. It looked like there was more stuff in there down deeper, so I called Ryan and asked him what I should do. He told me to try to flush it out with water. Which I did. When Ryan got home from work he took over. He too saw a bunch of white stuff down in his ear and the water wasn't helping.
So Ryan took him to the Emergency Room AGAIN!
His ear was so infected that it had caused the ear drum to rupture. Which is kind of scary! The doctors told us that in children so young it usually heals just fine and any hearing loss he has experienced will be temporary.

We had an appointment yesterday - Tate's post-Emergency Room visit. Dr. Burton put on his serious face , sat down face to face with Tate and had a real "Man to Man" talk with him. He asked him why he had come in today. Tate put on a face just as serious and said, "Well, I kept putting stuff in my ear." "And why did you do that?" asked Dr. Burton. Tate's response was "To get out all the other stuff!" in an 'of course' sort of voice. I thought it was all rather funny. Dr. Burton told him that the only thing he should ever put in his ear was his elbow. He tried that for a few minutes, which was also funny to watch and said, "That's tricky!" Dr. Burton nodded and said, "So, if you ever want to put something in your ear, just put your elbow in there." Dr. Burton then looked in his ear, to see how it looked. He kind of got a funny face on and asked "They told you they'd gotten EVERYTHING out at the ER?" I nodded and he had me come over and look. There was clearly more stuff down in Tate's ear. So the nurse brought in a big syringe thing and a tub full of warm water. I held a special tub (with a place cut out for the ear) next to Tate's head and we flushed out the rest of the gunk. A great big wad of newspaper was embedded in the wax right next to his ear drum. Tate is hearing much better today. I think Dr. Burton is great! He's so good with kids, and it was a fun visit. I sure hope that we're done with Doctors for a while or we won't be able to buy Christmas presents!!

October is Over!

We have had a VERY busy October, and I am glad it's over! My Grandma, Caroline "Oleta" Jensen White, passed away on October first.
She was 98, and had lived a long, full life. She had been deteriorating for years and it was time. We will miss her, but are glad that she is freed from the limitations of a aging, mortal body. I'm sure she will be able to do much good on the other side.
We had a funeral in Preston, ID on Friday, October 3. Much of my family was there. We had a second funeral and burial, the next day, October 4 in Vernal, UT. All of those who weren't able to attend the funeral in Preston, came to Vernal. There were only 3 of my cousins who were unable to make it to either. My wonderful husband took our three boys home to Pocatello, and I rode with my parents to Vernal and back.
It was fun to see old friends, and visit places I remembered going to as a young child. It was also great fun to be able to spend so much time with my parents, without my usual, small distractions.
To read the obituary and listen to funeral services visit http://www.webbmortuary.com

Here are all the cousins (and their spouses) who were at the funeral in vernal. There were others who came to the one in Preston.

We stayed with the Foley's, It's so nice to have such good friends! I haven't seen them in 10 years, but it was like it'd only been a few months. We talked and laughed, and had fun sharing memories. Here are Keith, Aljean, Cory and Carrie, we saw Carl and Emily too, but this is all that came for Sunday dinner.

We stopped in Red Canyon to see Flaming Gorge on our way home: My Dad and I.

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As soon as I got home I had to start making preparations for Ryan's business trip. We left, the following Thursday, October 9. I ran my kids down to my parents' house (in Preston, ID) then hurried back to Pocatello to leave when Ryan got home from work. We drove as far as Boise, where we stayed with Ryan's brother's family. Then continued on in the morning.
We drove for 8 hours on Friday, helped a family out of a rock slide. Left to find our hotel, got lost! (Google maps couldn't have been more wrong!) Had to hurry to get cleaned up before meeting other members of Ryan's team for dinner, and then went to bed exhausted!!

We spent all day Saturday in the convention center. It was neat to hear all the heads of the company talk, and to help everyone else get excited about this fantastic business opportunity!! (Because it really is WAY awesome!) I'm pretty pumped about the whole thing!
We are officially on our way to financial freedom!
See http://www.idaleader.com for the business opportunity or http://www.mycdrpsavings.com/idaleader for information on the product
We went to dinner with the founder and CEO of IDA that night along with 6 other couples. That was lots of fun!
We went to bed way too late that night too! Morning came far to early and we were once again on the road, this time on our way home, a destination we did not reach until Monday evening around 9pm.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Portland, OR

I had never fully grasped the concept of "was this trip for business or leisure?" I always thought you could easily mix the two. But this was definitely a business trip, no leisure whatsoever! I got home feeling more exhausted than when I left and did not feel like I'd been on a vacation at all!

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A few days after our return, our kids had a bad case of the sniffles. This followed by one of the worst colds I've ever encountered! Ryan and I were only a few days behind the kid with this crud, that I've come to call "the cold of death!" It's been weeks and we're still coughing (although not quite as miserable)

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My birthday was October 15. I turned 25 this year!! A whole quarter of a century! Ryan had to work all day, but I had a wonderful birthday. Ryan got up with the kids and fed them breakfast! I got to sleep in a bit. The boys came in to sing "happy Birthday" to me around 8:00. They'd been making cards while our awesome Daddy cleaned up. The dishwasher had been loaded and the living room floor vacuumed by the time I got up.
Ryan got off work at 7:00. My very good friend, Sam Hardcastle, offered to watch the kids so we could have some time together on my birthday. Ryan made reservations at the Texas Roadhouse. Although it's been open in our area for about a year I had never been. Ryan called ahead to see what on the menu I could eat (I have an allergy to soy). And they even saved a place on the grill for me that was 'Soy Free.' So I didn't even get sick on my birthday! That's a huge plus!!

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Through all of this I was doing my best to put together our Halloween costumes! I got Ryan the complete set of "Harry Potter" books for his last birthday. So within the last year Ryan and I have both finished all eight of those books. (We're both HUGE fans!) So for Halloween this year we decided to be characters from the "Harry Potter" books by J.K. Rowling.
Caranna is Hermione Granger, Oran is Hedwig, the owl, Ryan is the Weasley twins (Fred AND/OR George) Tate is Harry Potter, and Canton is Ron Weasley.

Last night we attended our ward "Chili Cook off" and "Trunk or Treat." We won the prize for the best dressed family! We had lots of fun showing off our costumes and teaching our kids to beg for candy :P.

After we left there we stopped to see "Aunt Bonnie Green" she gave us some candy, the good kind, and told our kids they were cute, they always appreciate that. Then we stopped to see Ryan's Grandma, "Great-Grandma Stavast" she was happy to see us, but isn't such a Harry Potter fan ;). Around 4:00 Tate and Canton were taking a bath, getting all clean and ready for their Halloween costumes. Tate decided to get out of the tub, and as he was climbing out slipped and hit his chin on the porcelain. It was a pretty deep gouge, (compression cut) Ryan took him to the ER, and Tate got stitches.
They got back just in time to dress for the ward party and Trunk or Treat.

After that we went to visit Ryan's other grandparents, "Great Grandma, and Grandpa Green." Halloween is a tradition at their house. They always have chili and pumpkin cookies. They started the tradition when Ryan was little because they thought the kids should eat some "real food" before devouring all their Halloween candy.
While we were there we saw Ryan's Uncle Bill and Aunt DeeAnne, Uncle Alan and Aunt Debra, Aunt Lisa, and cousins, Colton, Annie, Mark, Michelle, and their three boys. It was a house full, and a party, like always! Fun, Fun.

We finished up the night with a stop at my Aunt Bonnie's house. My kids love to see the Bakes' family. We were a little late and they were already out of their costumes. But it was nice to see them anyway.

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