Memorial Day Weekend With the Jorgensons (and Chase and Kristi)

Kyle has had cabin fever REAL bad. So last week I decided to start planning a camping trip with his family. I put out an invitation....we're going to Currant Creek to go camping, whoever wants to come can come. His whole family actually showed up. Chase and Kristi really wanted to go, so they came too. I checked the forecast before we left and saw it was supposed to rain a little the day we got there (Friday) and rain a little more the day we left (Sunday). Yeah, so much for the weather report. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there. We had all these plans of mountain biking and hiking, but that didn't work out so well. It didn't stop the boys from fishing though....a little cold didn't scare them off. Those of us who don't handle the cold so well, huddled together under a canopy and played games. It really ended up being a lot of fun, despite the rain, just enjoying each other's company. Our camping spot was right on the river, which was fun, but made the four moms of toddlers a little nervous. I was a little worried about taking Kyah camping, but she LOVED it. She and her 3 cousins her age had a blast together. We had a junk food table and just about every time you looked at Kyah, she had either an oreo, chips, or a granola bar in her hand. Becky and I got up early on Sunday morning and drove down to the Fruitland Branch to go to church, where they normally have around 15 people attending. Since it was a holiday weekend, there had to be over 200 people there. It was actually a really good meeting. The missionaries came to speak and had a really good message.

Kyle fishing the river.

Raquel holding sleeping Spencer

Spencer did surprisingly well. It was really cold, but we just kept him snuggled in a blanket most the time and didn't have any problem with him. He's such a good kid!

Becky & Kristi eating foil dinners

I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if you are an 8 year old boy (Kade) or a 38 year old man (Dusty) all boys are pyros and act like they are 5 years old when it comes to fire! They were obsessed with building their "MAN'S fires."

It was so dang hot, you couldn't stand within 10 feet of it!

The fallen "MAN'S fire."

Chase, Dusty, Kaitlyn and I playing a short game of horseshoes while it cleared up for 15 minutes.

As we were getting ready to leave, Kyle opened the valve to the fresh water and Kyah and Missy couldn't get enough of it. Despite the fact that the temperature was in the 40s, they were both completely soaked.

We all wanted to stay a little longer, but Kyle, forgetting Monday was a holiday, told a man flying in from Turkey that he could come on Memorial Day, so Kyle had to go into work. Everyone else decided to pack up and head home Sunday evening with us. This trip made me remember how much I love camping. I'm ready to start planning the next one already!

My little copycat

Kyah is at a stage where she imitates everything someone else does. This past Sunday, in church, as we were singing, Kyle nudged me. I looked at Kyah and she had a hymn book on her lap and was watching the chorister and waving her arm, directing the music.
Stacey and Ryan are nearly finished moving back to their place in Springville. They came back up today to get the rest of their stuff and Stacey was vacuuming their room. Kyah went and got her vacuum she got for her birthday from Grandma and was following right behind her "helping!" She really is such a good little helper (most of the time) and she is constantly making me smile!

Nauvoo

Last week we took our vacation to Nauvoo. What an amazing trip! If you ever have a chance to go, I would totally recommend it! I can't even put into words what kind of experience it was. We flew into St. Louis Saturday morning and picked up our sweet sweet rental car. It was a blue Mercury "cop" car. I should have taken a picture. I started laughing when Kyle pulled up in it! We drove into Nauvoo later that evening with no clue where to go. I tried to call Brett (his brother lives there and manages rental properties. We were staying in one of his houses. Brett and his brothers just happened to be there the same weekend visiting) trying to find out where to go as we pulled into town. He didn't answer. Anyone whose ever been to Nauvoo, knows its not a very big city. We were driving up the main highway and Brett and his brothers were walking down the street across from the temple. I saw him and had Kyle pull over. As I was getting out of the car, I looked down the street the other direction and saw Kyle's brother and niece, Dusty and Kamree. Small world! They independently planned a vacation to the same place at the same time. What are the odds! We spent that evening hanging out with Dusty, Becky, Kamree, and Becky's sister's family (Melanie, Robert, 2 year old Patience and their baby Emma.) We left Kyah behind and watching Patience really made me miss her! It was our first time meeting little Emma. She is just 4 months younger than Spencer, so I like to joke about them getting married. I took pictures of them together thinking it would be cute to have infant pictures in a wedding video someday! :)

Sunday we went to the missionaries ward. Holy heavens, I've never seen so many couple missionaries in my life! I felt like I was in Stake Conference....it went through the overflows and into the cultural hall! That evening, we headed out to what would be my favorite part of the trip...Carthage Jail. Brett took us out there and we just happened to get there at the same time as Dusty and the family again. We had to laugh at the missionary who was working that tour that day. After watching the 20 minute video they have about Joseph Smith, she came in and asked us if we had time to see the tour of the house. The look on Brett's face was priceless. No ma'am, we drove all the way out here to watch the video. Thanks, have a good day. Taking the tour was so humbling. To stand there in the bedroom where the martyrs of Joseph and Hyrum took place was incredible. The original door is still there. There is a bullet hole in the middle of the door that you can stick your finger through. It is the shot that hit Hyrum in the face and killed him. It is hard to wrap your mind around the fact that I was standing on the same floors, in front of the same window Joseph fell out of. It's something words just can't explain.

The whole group standing outside the jail.

We spent the rest of the week casually taking all the tours of all the houses. We were there the perfect amount of time. We were mostly constantly busy, but never rushed and we got to tour all the houses. I got to see everything that I wanted to. The spirit that is felt there is SO strong. Even Kyle felt it. He really enjoyed himself too. I couldn't believe how excited he got about some of the things we saw. Mom and I said that when the kids are all a little older, we want to plan a big trip back there with all the family. Mom and I were able to go to the Nauvoo Temple Wednesday night. They have tried to make it as accurate as possible in recreating it. It is all really incredible.

Driving around such a small town, it had a feel of being back in the old days, and we didn't feel it necessary to obey current laws! :) It got really old, really fast to put Spencer back in his seat when we were just driving house to house. It started by just not buckling him in. Then we just started holding him on our laps. He thought he was pretty hot stuff!

This is one of my favorite memorials. Mom and I went on a walk Sunday evening and ended up here at sunset. The picture does not do justice to what we saw.....seeing the sun setting over the river, with the temple right behind us. So Amazing! The plaque on the statue says that Hyrum and Joseph stopped at the top of the hill before they left for Carthage for the last time. They were looking back at the unfinished temple and Joseph said "This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them."
VERY TOUCHING!

I am so grateful for the experience I had. I had a hard time leaving. When we got back to Salt Lake, we decided to finish up the tour and go downtown to Temple Square and take a tour of the Beehive house. It was interesting to see how different it was from Brigham's house in Nauvoo. Then I just have to add one more thing....Sunday, in Sacrament, our special musical number was the men in the choir singing Praise to the Man. Kyle leaned over to me and said, that's fitting, isn't it.

update on the kids

Spencer
I can't believe Spencer is already 8 months. I swear the second one ages so much faster than the first. He seems to be quickly following in Kyah's footsteps as far as growth. He grew real fast at first, just like she did, but seems to have slowed down. I make a point to weigh and measure him every month, even when I don't have a doctor's appointment for him, and he didn't put on any weight or height this month. I guess my kids are just destined to be small like the Jorgensons! My pediatrician has decided that Kyah was always so small and behind in milestones because she is severely anemic, so he already wants me to start Spencer on an iron supplement. We'll see how that works out for him since I'm starting a lot sooner than I did with Kyah (and I know how detrimental it can be if I accidentally forget to give it to him, so I've been really consistent.) He seems to be hitting all his milestones right on time so I'm pretty pleased with that. He's been watching Kaylee barrell roll around the floor for months as a means of getting around and has just figured that out this month. All of a sudden, he's not so content with just staying put. He's all over the place. It was actually quite nice to not ever have to worry about what he would get into if I left him alone for a few minutes. Those days are gone! Also like Kyah, he gave me a hard time when it came time to solid foods. Kyah just plain didn't like them and didn't want anything to do with them. Spencer really liked them, he just wanted to feed himself. He would grab the spoon every time and it would take like 20 minutes just to feed him half of a stage one baby food and it would be ALL OVER him. It was hardly worth it. Eating is something else he has figured out recently. He actually lets me feed him (most of the time) and is way neater about it. Sometimes he'll even open his mouth without being coerced (tickling or making him laugh.) He's just like Kyle when it comes to eating....he like to savor every bite and roll it around on his tongue for a bit, and waits a minute between every bite. It's only slightly annoying! :)

Kyah
Like I said before, Kyah has almost always been small. She was top of the percentiles for her height and weight when she was born, up until she was 3 months old. That's when her growth started to taper off. She stopped growing at 4 months. She was 14 pounds and 24 1/2 inches at her 4 month check up. She was 14.75 pounds and 27 inches at her 1 year check up. It was really scary not knowing why she was not growing. After much testing (and everything coming back negative, thank goodness) the doctor decided it was simply anemia. I started giving her iron supplments a long time ago. She started to grow slowly. She was still off the charts small at her 2 year check up and when he tested her iron levels, they were still lower than he wanted them to be. He decided she just wasn't absorbing the iron I was giving her. So rather than giving her 10 mg/day in one dose, he wanted me to divide it into 2-5mg doses. He explained it that no matter how much iron I was giving her (whether it be 5 mg or 15) she would only absorb, say, 3 mg at a time. So, if I gave her 5 twice, she would be getting 6 mg per day. Well, obviously it worked. At her two year check up, she was 31 inches and 25 pounds. Her weight was barely on the charts, her height was still not at all. Well, now, just 3 short months later, she is 34 inches tall and weighs 28 pounds. That is the biggest growth spurt she has had in her whole life! She is actually considered average size her for age. The doctor also contributed her anemia to her slow pace in reaching milestones...it's all related. Iron not only makes the body grow, it makes the brain grow. She just seems to be taking off. She is still very far behind other kids her age as far as what she should be doing, but she is progressing faster than she ever has before. We've got her signed up for speech therapy twice a month. She has only had one appointment so far, but I'm starting to wonder if she needs it. She seems to be figuring it all out on her own. I'll give it a few months and see if I think it's doing any good. She's such a sweet girl (most of the time) and I'm so happy to see her progress!

I unfortunately don't have a really cute recent picture of Kyah...I just took this one the other day for fun....what a bad mom I am. I need to be better with the camera!