Viva Las Vegas (Jan 31 - Feb 5th)

Mom and Dad rented a big 15 passenger van so we could all go together to Las Vegas to see Reid and Laura's baby blessing on Feb 3rd.  Chad Howard was born Dec 4th 2012.  Scott didn't go because he didn't want to use one of his personal days from work and then he got sick anyway.  Dad and I did all the driving.  We went almost half way on Thursday Jan 31st and stayed at Wells at the Super 8.  Lets just say at least we had a warm bed to sleep in and we will leave it at that.  I think we made it to Reid's around 3 or 4 on Friday.

I finally got my hands on this little cutie!!!

and we even got a smile...so cute!

Brady was so happy to see his cousins...

E.J. and Rosie made it in around 8:30.  It was so fun to see their family also.  I love this picture of Caleb with Dad.

Saturday Mom and Dad took the four oldest grand kids to Walmart to pick out Valentines for all the kids.  They are amazing and always like to spoil the kids.  Kacie picked out nails and make-up.  Here I am helping them with their nails.

Brady got some bubbles and a car.  The bubbles were a huge hit with all the kids

Such a cute baby!

Three generations of Howards.

Van Howard Schulthies

Reid Howard Schulthies

Chad Howard Schulthies
If I remember right the Howard name came from Lydia Howard who was married to Henry Schulthies who would be Dad's Grandpa and Grandma.

I absolutely love this picture!  I love what Dedre said on Instagram...

"Priceless pic! Frame worthy!"

Loving their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa!

The weather was so nice.  We were all loving the outdoors!

Beautiful picture of Mom and sweet Chad...We couldn't get enough of him!

Pretty, Pretty Girls!!!

Once again we couldn't go to Las Vegas without a trip to the Bellagio garden and water shows.

This time it was the Chinese New Year!

Brady's favorite place on earth!!!

We saw six shows and only two of them we had seen before.  But then Brady informed me that he had seen the other ones on YouTube also.  Too funny!

Cute picture of Joshua and Teniele with Luigi and Mario.  Brady wouldn't get near them.

This was everyone that went.  Reid was a good sport to drive us down.

Photo bombed by Kyle!  Reid wanted me to do it to a couple that were taking engagement pictures.  It would have been funny but I wasn't daring enough.

Chad's big day...  Reid did an awesome job with his blessing.

Photo bomb by Brielle...

What handsome boys...

I think this is everyone that was there.

What a beautiful family!

All the grand kids except for Brandon and Chad! (He was hungry)

Here he made it for the picture..still missing Brandon though ):

Brady was upset in this picture because he didn't have one with just Grandpa and Grandma.

now he is happy!

Brielle's beautiful artwork...

Man of the hour!

Chad's Grandma Connie Berrett made the cute blanket.

So after our yummy dinner we just relaxed and visited, played games and watched a few slide shows.  Monday morning Dad, Reid, Ruben and I went over to Dave and Connie's at 6am to watch the Super Bowl.  It was a good game and Connie feed us a nice breakfast but we were sad that the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers and it gave us a late start going home.  Then around 5:30 pm I was driving and hit a deer about 10 miles south of Jackpot.  I was so mad because it was going to make it even later to get home with the kids for school the next day.  Little did I know that it wouldn't be until 11pm the following day that we get home.  As we were waiting for a tow truck to come and the highway patrol, the Elko Sheriff drove up.  He was a God send...so nice and helpful, much more so than the State Police officer.  So Ruben, Dad, Kacie, Brady and I rode in the tow truck and Mom, Teniele, Joshua and James rode in the Sheriff's car to Jackpot.  Joshua was in heaven riding in a cop car but Mom not so much.  She got to ride in the cage.  The Sheriff went ahead of us to get a room in Jackpot at the Four Jacks Hotel.  The Sheriff went with Mom into the hotel and told the owner that he had totaled five cars hitting deer and that he knew what we were going through and asked if he would cut us a deal and he did...he charged us nothing. Rosie told us later that Blake prayed before FHE that we would be safe and warm and make it to a safe place without it costing too much money.  Then they were shocked to hear that the hotel didn't charge us for the rooms because of the nice sheriff that took care of us.  Prayers are answered...especially from cute five year olds.  Once we finally got the van emptied and to our rooms it must have been around 9pm.  I didn't realize how shaky I was until we were in the room.  Mom and Dad went down to the restaurant to get us all some food then we all crashed I think except for me.  It took me a while to unwind.

It was a total nightmare waiting for a vehicle or two vehicles to get home with.  The crazy rental agency kept changing its plans.  They finally decided to haul a 15 passenger van out of Idaho Falls and it didn't arrive until almost 6pm our time.  This is Kacie and I begging for a car to finally come.  Once we got to Twin Falls we figured it took us 24 hours to get from Jackpot to Twin.  Crazy!  Then after we got some stuff out of the van that we left, filled up and ate, it wasn't until 8pm before we left Twin Falls.  

It was a fun trip but I could have done without the last twenty-four hours. It took me a couple of days to recover from that one. It was a good thing Scott didn't go because then he would have lost the only two personal days he has.  As we were leaving Brady said, "Are you excited to see your husband?"  It is so funny some of the stuff he comes up with.

3rd Coldest January on Record

Took these pictures of Brady on January 7, 2013.  I believe this was his first snow angel ever, crazy I know but he has never had much interest in playing in the snow until this year.

Reid's waterfall even froze down in Las Vegas.  We had several days in sub below temperatures.  It's crazy when you think twenty degree weather is actually warm.

Latest Happenings...

January 22nd Kacie and Melissa wanted to go to the Ontario Middle School basketball game to see Jake and Steele play ball.  They are so cute!  Steele had a really good game with 16 points.

January 24th Brady had his 1st pack meeting.  They played cute winter games.  In this picture they are doing sled dog races.  Brady was having a hard time holding on so Chris Carlton took him on his very own ride.  That was so nice of him to try to include him.   They also had a snowball fight with white bean bags.  (Basically dodgeball)  Brady got hit in the face and had a complete melt down and wanted whoever it was to apologize.  It seemed like forever to get him to calm down.  I told him it was just part of the game and the other kid didn't need to apologize.  It is times like these that make me so sad that he struggles so much socially.

January 25th I went with Mom and Dad to Spokane to my cousin's funeral.  I started a new book called, The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw so I read it to them on the way.  I've really enjoyed it so far.  It's stories of veterans from World War II.  (amazing people.)  We made a couple stops along the way at Uncle Allan's and then Diana's  We stayed at the Best Western and later in the evening  had a nice visit with Paul, Lisa and their son Jonathan.

At the viewing with Lisa, Alice and Patty.

It is really sad that she has gone home so young, but I'm so happy for her since she had so many health problems.  She can now see!  I thought this was a great picture of her.  The service was really nice.  Paul and Andy did a really good job on their talks and Patti and Alice were so cute doing the life sketch   The woman that played Mahana in Johnny Lingo played a beautiful piano solo with the organ.  Darryl was her home teacher before he died and she played at his funeral too.  What a beautiful and very proper lady.

These are the flowers that came from our family.  Mom and Dad are so good to make sure this happens.

At the cemetery stood a lone bagpiper. He played as Ruth was being brought to her final resting place and then he played Amazing Grace after the dedication of the grave.  It was pretty special.

The man that played the bagpipes is one of Paul's clients.

Jonathan (Paul and Lisa's) and Josh (Andy and Patti's)

Jonathan went with us to the cemetery.  I feel in love with this little guy.  Such a cutie!

It was such a beautiful cemetery.

I guess no else got the memo that you were suppose to wear black and pink...haha!

I don't like how this picture has changed so much.  Too many people missing.

Love these two!

After the family dinner we traveled back to Prosser and stayed with Uncle Brent and Aunt Berniel.  We had a nice dinner and we watched a BYU basketball while Mom and I helped Berniel get signed up on instagram.  It was fun to visit with them!

When we got back to Ontario we stopped at Presbyterian to visit Sister Simpson and Sister Romans.  We had a good visit with them.

We got home around 5pm  We then watched this amazing movie about a lady with autism.   It was very touching.   All I can say is how grateful I am that Brady will let me snuggle with him.

Sunday we could tell Brady was starting to come down with something and so sure enough Monday morning he had a fever so I stayed home with him after I took Kacie for more bloodwork.  Luckily Dad stayed with him until I got back.  I was trying to figure out if he had strep so I took a picture of his tongue.  (I'm hoping to be able to remember this in the future.)  Tuesday Mom watched him so I could go to work.  She could tell he wasn't getting better so she took him to the doctor for me and sure enough he had strep even with no tonsils folks.  This morning he was feeling a little more like himself even though he still has a bad cough.

Everybody needs a Brady...

I have to remember some of the funny things Brady has said.  His little mind sees and hears everything so literally.  He doesn't understand sarcasm at all.  After we got home from Howie's baptism a few weekends ago, I noticed I lost one of my earrings and I said, "That stinks!"  and he said, "What smells?"  I couldn't stop laughing.  Too funny.

Also, Brady has had a thing for Tom Brady because he has the same name and one of his jersey's.  I told him yesterday that his team lost (because he fell asleep Sunday before it was over) and he couldn't figure out how they got lost.  Scott and I had to explain it several times to him that they weren't lost but they got beat in their football game.

Who knows what he will come up with next.

Another Busy Weekend

We had another busy weekend actually starting Thursday when Kacie had Mallory spend the night and then Friday Jocelyn and Mallory both spent the night.  Saturday morning Mom and I drove all the girls to Jocey's gymnastic meet in Twin Falls.  It was fun to watch Jocey but boy was it a long day.  We left around 10 a.m. and got home about 9:30 p.m.  Scott stayed home with Brady.  He has had to rest his back since he injured it on New Year's Eve.  It has taken it a while to heal.

Jocey just missed going to State by less than half a point.  She was pretty disappointed but we all still thought she did great.

Scott stayed home from church because of his back so I got Lori to help me with our class.  I thought they were so cute with their Prince and Princess crowns.  We talked about how we are all born from a King our Heavenly Father so that makes us all Prince and Princesses.

After church we went over to Ron and Stacie's to celebrate Wanda, Tyson and Ryan's birthdays.  We had yummy tacos and Scott and I made a yummy cake.  It was a red velvet cake with cheesecake pudding poked into it with cool whip and crushed Oreos on top.  It was so good.  It was a fun day.

We watched the Patriots win their game so of course Brady had to wear his Patriot jersey.

Brady is trying out Ryan's new birthday present.

Love this picture!

These two had way too much fun making funny pictures on Taylor's iPad.

This was the temperature today the 16th when I got to work at 9 a.m...

I'm so ready for some warmer weather.

Our Busy Weekend

It started Friday night when we all went to Denny's to celebrate Teniele's 25th birthday.  Just before I got there I backed into a bunch of shopping charts that a Walmart employee was pushing.  I couldn't believe it because I know I looked and there was nothing behind me.  He must have been in my blind spot.  At least he was OK but I got a little scrap on the car which didn't make me too happy.

Saturday we hung out and did a little cleaning and then Scott took the kids to town and I got a little me time. Later in the evening we went to Howie's baptism which was really nice then we took the kids out to eat at KFC.

Sunday Scott and I got to meet our new Primary class.  We are teaching the CTR 4 class and we have 11 four year olds.  Boy was it a mad house.  It's going to be an interesting year.  We had them practice giving their testimonies and one little girl said she was grateful for her mom because she saved her from the sharks...too funny.  I asked her dad about it after church and he said they don't even have fish and that her imagination has no end.

After church we went to Tara and Tommy's house for a nice lunch to celebrate Howie's baptism.  We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed visiting with everyone.  Kacie went to a fireside later in the evening.

Today the 8th we found out that Kacie's Prograf levels were back up so that was a relief.  I'm so grateful to the power of fasting and prayer.

Kacie Update....

We were reminded yesterday how fragile this girl's life is. Her anti-rejection medicine keeps dipping and they don't know why. It was 2.4 which could cause her kidney to reject. So we are back to blood work every two weeks and the Doc added another medicine that can cause her white blood cells to drop. Isn't this life fun.