Christmas Letter

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 1 year with-out a single flood-ing! (We remember a little too well the FOUR flooding incidents brought on by Cooper-kazi last year! And while we can sit back and laugh now, we hope these will continue to be just a memory and no more a reality).

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 2 broken bones (Andrew broke both his ulna and radius again this year. He underwent 2 surgeries to get his radius put back together—one to put a pin in and one to take the pin out) and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 3 baby molars (Drake is sure a happy, easy going baby when he’s not teething. We are all very grateful for the non-teething times!), 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 4 sets of stitches (Two sets of stitches went along with the two surgeries for Andrew’s arm. The other two sets were on his back where he had an “abnormal” mole removed), 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a 5 year old boy! (Barik turned 5 this year and started all day Kindergarten where according to Ms. Kerkel, he is her favorite student! He is constantly sounding out words. What an amazing process to be a part of!) 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 6 balls a flying (Man, does our baby Drake have an accurate arm! He is constantly pitching balls at any and all unsuspecting targets—especially faces! He must get his throwing arm from Grandpa John). A 5 year old boy! 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 7 visits from family (We LOVE visits from family and are so grateful that so many of our family members were able to come visit this year! That’s what makes living away from family bearable), 6 balls a flying. A 5 year old boy! 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: an 8 year old baptized (Andrew was baptized this year in Utah with his cousin Emma and almost all of out extended family was able to attend! Including 2 great grandmas and 1 great grandpa! What a special day!), 7 visits from family, 6 balls a flying. A 5 year old boy! 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 9 fits of laughter (While Cooper still keeps us on our toes, he helps compensate with his sense of humor and infectious laughter), an 8 year old baptized, 7 visits from family, 6 balls a flying. A 5 year old boy! 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 10 years of marriage (Paul and Leslie celebrated 10 years of marriage in Hawaii for 10 glorious, relaxing days! We are both grateful that Grandma Carol was able to come down to spoil our boys.), 9 fits of laughter, an 8 year old baptized, 7 visits from family, 6 balls a flying. A 5 year old boy! 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 11 T-Ball games (Barik has been very involved in T-Ball this year. And with Dad helping to coach, they both have a blast.), 10 years of marriage, 9 fits of laughter, an 8 year old baptized, 7 visits from family, 6 balls a flying. A 5 year old boy! 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 runners running (Paul and Leslie ran a relay race with 10 other strangers in Las Vegas completing a combined total of over 178 miles in about 32 hours. Thanks, Grandma Valerie for coming down to take great care of the chillins.), 11 T-Ball games, 10 years of marriage, 9 fits of laughter, an 8 year old baptized, 7 visits from family, 6 balls a flying. A 5 year old boy! 4 sets of stitches, 3 baby molars, 2 broken bones, and 1 year with-out a single flood-ing!

With the knowledge that “my true love” is the Savior, we are incredibly grateful for the gifts of family and health that He has given us this and every year.

My affair with Craigslist

has finally ended! And thank goodness for that! I was able to update all of my kitchen appliances with stainless steel through craigslist. First, I found the dishwasher and microwave. Since the gentleman selling them had them in storage (nowhere that I could make sure they actually work), I asked him if he would bring them out to the house so I could plug them in, thus making sure I wasn't being scammed. A similar situation happened with the fridge. The gentleman had just moved out the night before and still had the fridge in his UHAUL, so he brought it right over. The last piece I had to get was the stove. My luck with the stove had run out. It seemed that every time I called on a stove, it had either already been sold, the owner wanted to sell it as a set, or it was too far away. And this is how the obsession began. My obsession was only fueled when I would walk away from the computer (thinking to myself that I needed to get a grip, and get some balance in my life again) just to find that a stove had been posted and once again I was too late.

This madness went on for a week and a half (WAY too long) when another stove was posted, a bit more than I wanted to spend, but called on it anyway. Once again, I was the 2nd caller, but told the gal selling it that I would pay full price and be out that morning to pick it up. She called me a few minutes later and said it was mine. I literally had to fight back tears! I know it's ridiculous! But after searching DAY and NIGHT for this one last piece, I was beyond elated to have FINALLY finished the appliance part of the kitchen! The stove, microwave and dishwasher all have half moon handles that match the handles on the cupboards. It looks BEAUTIFUL! And I've got a gentleman coming over today with granite samples. And then the kitchen will be complete.

But wait, there's more! After receiving delivery on the dishwasher and microwave, my friend Darbie mentioned that her mom might be looking for new appliances and could she come over to take a look at mine. And just like that, all of my previous appliances were sold! So, for $500 out of pocket, I've got completely updated kitchen appliances!

A visitor in the night

Paul and I were getting ready for bed when our bedroom door was mysteriously shut. Knowing it was probably one of the kids, I went to check it out. There, sitting on the floor just outside our bedroom was Cooper.

Me: "What are you doing, Cooper?"
Cooper: "Turn your light off."
Me: "What do you mean, 'turn your light off'?"
Cooper: "Turn your light off so I can come sleep on your floor."
Me: "No, you need to go sleep in your own bed."
Cooper: "So I can wait for you to turn your light off?"
Me: "No, you need to stay in your own bed to sleep."

I took him to his bed where he refused to lay down. Hoping sleep would overcome him, I left him sitting up in bed and went back to my own bed where the light was still on and Paul and I read for a bit. Not more than 5 minutes later, Cooper's door opened. Paul and I made bets as to how long it would be from the time we turned off our lights until he joined us and made himself all comfy, cozy on the floor. Sure enough, a few minutes after the lights were out in our room, our little visitor found his way to slumberville on the comfort of mom and dad's floor.

"Why aren't you and Dad in the alphabet?"

Was the question Barik asked me over and over again this morning. I had a hard time figuring out what he was talking about. "What do you mean, why aren't we in the alphabet?" I asked, trying to get more clarifying information out of him. When I finally realized what he was talking about, I couldn't help but laugh. Have you figured it out yet?

Here's the answer for those who are a bit slow like me: A(Andrew) B(Barik) C(Cooper) D(Drake)...P and L?!?! There are a whole lot of letters that come between D(Drake) and L or P. So then Barik came up with a very simple solution: "So our next baby should be named Ian." (the "I" sounding like "E", the next letter in the alphabet). I laughed and told him that we weren't having any more babies. He took that bit of information like a man (nothing more said).

Not AGAIN!!!!

Andrew and I went into the dermatologist Friday, November 20 to get the stitches out of his back. As a side note, I am NOT a patient person! Case in point: as a young girl, I taught myself to tie my shoes because my mom was too busy getting ready--I was too impatient to wait. Also, I taught myself to ride a bike because my dad wasn't getting it done on MY time frame. While I try to practice patience, it still continues to be a struggle. So after waiting in the waiting room for an hour, I was very tempted to just go home and take them out myself. Thank goodness this was one of those times where I had a little more patience than normal.

Dr. Mackey met us in the exam room and proceeded to tell us that more "abnormal" tissue was found below the "punch" he had taken out the week before. As Dr. Mackey explained that this is unusual, but that sometimes the "abnormal" tissue spreads out wider as it gets deeper. Both Andrew and I were shocked as Dr. Mackey suggested that rather than just taking out the stitches, that he would do what he did the previous week, make the same incision and take out more tissue, and then follow up with more stitches and another follow up appointment a week later. Both of us wanted to cry. Andrew did cry. I held it together to try to comfort him. This meant another painful shot to numb his back and then the discomfort of the stitches (which fortunately only lasted the first day). Of course we did it. In my mind, there wasn't any other option. I couldn't stand the thought of letting it go, knowing that it could turn into cancer down the road.

With much relief, the follow up appointment on Monday, November 30, was only filled with the removal of the stitches (which was quite uncomfortable for my little guy) and a bill of clean health. I'm pretty sure that Andrew understands why I made him go through this series of painful shots, but just in case he doesn't, and one day looks back at this post, this is what I would want him to know:

Dear Andrew,
Oh, how I love you! As your mom, I have literally given a part of myself to you and my heart breaks when I see you in pain. I want to cry along with you, but try to keep a brave face so I can encourage you to do the same. When the biopsy results first came back with a "slightly abnormal" result, my stomach sank. The nurse assured me that it wasn't cancerous, but as your mother, I wanted to do everything possible to make sure that your health remained untouched. So I agreed to submit you to some temporary pain and discomfort to ensure that future, much worse pain and discomfort could be avoided. Every time we are waiting in the exam room, you ask me about losing your hair. And while you have a TON of hair, I don't want you to lose a single strand due to the chemicals necessary to fight off cancer. And it's because I don't want you to lose your hair (least of all) and because I don't want you to be sick, and I don't want to see you in pain, and worst of all, I don't want to lose you, that I agreed to put you through more pain. I love you! You are growing up to be a very fine, trust worthy, responsible, helpful, loving and handsome young man.

Thanksgiving

We have lived in Arizona for 5 years and have had visitors for Thanksgiving every year that we've been here. So, with my mom on a humanitarian visit to Peru, my dad, who was unable to go due to BYU still being in session, became the perfect target! It took a bit of convincing, but once I reminded him that he didn't have to drive (there are planes that come to Phoenix) and that surely the plane ticket wouldn't be as expensive as a plane ticket to Peru (so logical, I know), there was no other answer besides YES!

We LOVE visits from family! And while my dad has visited several times, he's always been with my mom. So it was a special treat to get him ALL to ourselves! Here are all the boys getting ready for some table bowling.

My dad is a bit of a baseball guy, having been drafted by the Mets out of high school, so we played lots of t-ball and baseball down in the grass field. And ALL of the boys (big ones included) had a great time! Paul and my dad even took advantage of the all the kids being outside the "hit zone" and pitched to each other, sending those balls soaring!

After Thanksgiving dinner, we took dad out to Lake Pleasant, where we saw some javelinas (a first for me), got some great shots of the boys at sunset with the lake behind them (this inspired the site for this years Christmas photo).


On Black Friday, rather than spending time in the crowded stores (which I HATE--remember the patience confession?), we hiked around the White Tanks where Cooper spent more time climbing the rocks than actual hiking. And then whined about his feet and his stomach hurting. I had to get pretty creative to keep his mind off his "woes". He is continually trying to teach me more patience!

Dad left Friday evening so he could get back for the long awaited BYU-UTAH football game. I'm so grateful that he came to visit us! All the Boley's really enjoyed spending so much condensed time with my dad. Thanks for coming, Dad!

A fun day at the Farm

Cooper's preschool class took a trip to the Tolmachoff Farm. Check out this little farmer!

Austin (Cooper's "best fwend") was there to share in the fun. These two little boys are too cute together!


























Pointing and "Uhhh". Drake had a good time too.



















(I know it's blurry, but it's too cute!)


Drake and Isaac (Drake's BFF) had a great time too!












Oh yeah, Adrienne and I had a good time as well:)(again, I know it's blurry--someone made a nice fingerprint on my lense:(.

MORE Stitches!!!

The other day Andrew said to me, "Mom, do you know many people who have gone through what I have in such a short period of time?" "No, Andrew, I don't know any kids who have gone through what you have." In April, he broke his arm, needing surgery to put it back together properly (stitches #1). In August, Dr. Vaughan took the pin out of his radius (stitches #2) and a couple days ago, Dr. Mackey (a dermatologist) made an inch long incision in Andrew's back to remove some "abnormal" tissue, thus requiring 4 stitches (stitches #3). Thank goodness for insurance! And thank goodness this all happened in one calendar year, after already meeting our deductible for the first surgery.

He sure is a brave boy! He was nervous, definitely didn't want to go through with the procedure (even asked me about losing his hair). I assured him that going through this little bit of pain now meant that he wouldn't have to go through a lot worse pain down the road (if that spot ever turned into "C"). He didn't cry for the shot and chose not to look in my eyes during the procedure (he could see the reflection of the doctor cutting into his back).

I'm sure glad that spot was nothing more than "abnormal" and that it's now taken care of--won't have to worry about it anymore.

What's that, you say?!

Shopping with GIRLS?! Ok, there were a couple cute boys with us too. But, oh how fun it was to shop with my sis, Denice and two of her girls, Nicole and Kayla (we missed you, Shanae). Like the Boley's are Boy Power, the Sorensen's are Girl Power (although they only have 3 girls). Marshalls was the perfect spot to spend an hour searching for just the right treasure. Girls are so different than boys, and I appreciate their mothering differences--especially when my boys are involved.:)

Friday night, I got a baby sitter so Dale, Denice, Nicole and I could to to On The Border (a favorite for our out of town guests). Yummy! We rented a lame movie (don't even remember what it was) and all fell asleep before it was even half way over.

Saturday evening, we got to hang out with Nicole and Kayla while Dale and Denice went to the USC-ASU football game. We played t-ball, and even Nicole and I hit some balls off the T. All the kids rode the wagon down the hill (not all at once!), climbed trees and played in the dirt. I'm not sure at what age it becomes not cool to hang out with little kids AND HAVE FUN, but Nicole either isn't to that age yet, or forgot about that rule while she was with us. I know that when I was her age, I was very conscience of "being cool" and having fun with little kids was definitely not part of that title.

The Sorensen's have to go when the flights are least full, so we said a very early "good bye" and are excited to see them all for Christmas. Thanks so much for a super fun, girl-filled weekend, Sorensen's! We love you guys!

Happy Halloween!

The day before Halloween, I visited Andrew and Barik at school. Andrew's class was first. The kids could dress up as long as they found a poem to go along with their costumes. Andrew chose to be Dracula and we found a simple, non-gross poem to justify him dressing up. As I entered his classroom, I was scanning the class for my little blondey, but couldn't find him anywhere. Oh yeah, I forgot that I had sprayed his hair black earlier that morning. He looked entirely different!

That night was Trunk-or-Treat at the church where a bunch of us ladies dressed up as Red Hat ladies! What a hoot! I haven't been in a room with that much polyester and shoulder pads in, lets see...forever! Thanks for coming up with this crazy idea and for the lovely purple dress, Tammy!


Andrew absolutely LOVED his Dracula costume! And I loved that while it was scary, it wasn't gross and creepy like his latest costumes have been. Barik got a kick out of being a black ninja from GI Joe. Cooper loved being Spider Man again. And Drake looked boucy, pouncy, trouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun as Tigger (the wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers a wonderful thing).

Adrienne and her boys joined us for a chaotic chili and corn bread dinner. Aren't dinners always crazy before Trick-or-Treating? Then all the boys were OFF! A total of 8 boys trick-or-treating.
Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE boys?!?!

Washing the car and other things

Cooper and I spent a very productive morning washing my car. He loves to wash the car. Or maybe he loves to play in the water and knows that while I'm washing the car, that's the perfect chance to play in the hose, the gutter, and anything else wet. So, it shouldn't surprise me to have found him like this:(notice where his undies are?) "What are you doing, Cooper?" "Taking a bath." (of course). When I'm not pulling my hair out in frustration over him, he sure makes me laugh.

Only a couple days later, I was cleaning the big filters in the pool, when who should find me? Why, Cooper of course. He's a water magnet. (We all remember the flooding of the bathroom stories.)

A visit from the Skolmoski's

It had been a little while since the Skolmoski's were able to come for a visit. We love visitors! And we especially love when our crazy Utah families come during this time of year--it helps extend the swim season. Our boys get a little spoiled with water temps in the mid 90's during the summer, so by the time October comes around, and temps are in the low 70's, they're not very anxious to get in the water. But add Utah cousins to that cold water, and they seem to forget their thin blood and jump in. Here's on of Cooper riding the "Benj Boat".
All that swimming makes a little guy hungry. Here's A. with his swimming snack.
Another Benj Boat with J. trailing along behind.
The lovely E.

The Skolmoski's had been waiting to go to Out Of Africa since April when they had to cancel their trip due to Benj being sick. The kids sure LOVED petting the giant constrictors! The Yellow One (Banana or Mr. B) is an albino python.

Sweet Baby Drake, who hadn't napped since his 30 minute cat nap early that morning (after waking up at 5 am) was finally tuckered and fell asleep after his afternoon snack (still visible on his face) around 3:30.












And of course, feeding the giraffe's is always a huge hit! Pilgrim (the giraffe) took a cookie from Andrew's mouth. You can see how much Andrew enjoyed that!













And Barik, chill as ever, enjoying the view out his "window" on the Serengeti ride.













Thanks for taking the time to come visit us again, Skolmoski's! We all had a great time!