Family Tradition: Bobcat 5k

It is a family tradition now to run the East Layton Bobcat 5k put on by our Elementary school every year. We started in 2008 and have only missed one year (because of soccer conflicts.) It has been such a neat tradition. Here are some pictures from Bobcat 5ks of yore:

2008

2009

2011

2012

This year, East Layton had a very colorful and fun idea! They had a Color Blast 5k! We really had such a great time. I ran with Rae, Lily and my friend Jenny and her daughter and Tim ran with the boys and my friend's son.

It has been such a joy to watch the kids grow looking back at our old 5k photos. It amazes me, almost daily, at how fast the time goes with the little ones. I cherish memories and traditions like these.

A Christmas Letter in March

There have been some lovely blog posts and emails from our family lately about how they are doing, so I decided I would do the same for those who are interested. And since my last post was in 09' I figured it was time for an update.

The biggest and most recent event has been my hysterectomy that was done Feb. 6, 2012. I have been recovering at a faster rate than my doctor and I expected, which is very nice. They were able to leave my ovaries, which I believe to be a direct answer to prayers. My endometriosis, previously stage four, was completely gone! The Lord works miracles! I had a blessing in 2005 that said I would be completely healed, and I was! I will forever be grateful to my Heavenly Father for healing me and allowing me to bear 4 beautiful children.

My uterus was still pretty enlarged due to another condition I had, so it was good to get it out. I can already tell a huge reduction in pain. The only thing that has been hard lately is that my sleep patterns are totally off. I haven't been sleeping well, and have been waking up exhausted. I hope it's all from hormonal fluctuations and that I'll be back to normal soon.

My mom was a complete Godsend while I was sick. She stayed with us for a month while I recovered. She is so attentive and loving. It reminded me of what a good mother she was to me and continues to be even as I've grown up. I love my mom and I know that I don't tell her that enough! 

I am back to work, I am only keeping three clients at the moment. They see me once weekly for reporting and working out. I really don't want to work much more than that. Over my recovery I contemplated not going back, but I just couldn't do it. I love my clients and I love my job. Being a personal trainer is very rewarding. I love that I get to help people achieve their goals and gain confidence in themselves again. It's nice to see a visible change in people.

But of course, I spend most of my time on my first and most important job, being a mommy. I'm not as good at this job as I am at my other one. I'll be the first to admit that I'm under-experienced under-educated and under-qualified for the job. As the kids get older, I only realize this more. I am amazed at such good kids they are, despite some of my failures and shortcomings as a mom.

Sam is growing up so fast and is so handsome. He prefers to have a long haircut, which I'm fine with as long as his hair doesn't get into his eyes, grow over his ears or collar. :) He's got quite the sense of humor for anyone that knows him well. He loves to make jokes at opportune moments. He's excelling in math, history and science. I am glad he is growing in his confidence. He has lots of friends and is very outgoing.

Sam and Kyler have started playing basketball after school once a week and they love it. Sam especially loves it (although I've been told that Ky is the one who's a natural.) They also go with their dad every Saturday to the track to run. They've been timing their 400 meter and trying to beat their record every time they go. I haven't been able to go yet, but I can't wait to witness this for myself this Saturday.

This year Kyler got glasses, and I think they suit him well. It makes him look like the smart boy that he is. He continues to do well in all areas at school. He's our boy that always has a ball in his hand (and always getting in trouble for throwing the ball indoors!) He'll be playing t-ball and soccer in the spring. He has a lot of friends because of his sweet and kind demeanor. He was selected to be a mentor this year to a group of behaviorally challenged kids. We were happy that he is such a good example.

Rae's been in preschool this year. At first she had a really hard time leaving me. It was hard for her to make the adjustment. Now she loves it and looks forward to it. Her preschool is very cute and does lots of fun activities. This month they will be going to the Ogden Treehouse. Rae is learning her letters, and thanks to her brothers, is learning addition! Rae is our little tomboy with lots of energy but also has a complete soft side.

Little Lily is a two year old. What more can I say? I will add that she happens to be pretty darn adorable which probably has saved her bacon on more than one occasion. ;) She's a doer, not a talker. She's quite proficient in getting what she wants, despite using very few words. She is becoming a little girl though, which makes me sad to see my baby grow, but happy to see her progress. She's a complete joy, and I'm so grateful that the Lord blessed me with a last and final child, despite what the doctors said was possible.

Last of all, my loving hubby, Tim is doing well. He's been such a trooper during my recover keeping the house clean and taking care of the kids. I have been so blessed to have married a man who loves me, takes care for me and is concerned for me and our kids. He has been really blessed in his job, although we feel that some changes are in our near future! I will keep you updated as to what happens!

Sorry this was so long overdue! And sorry for the "Christmas Brag Letter" format. It's just been so long that it's fun to share with family what going on in all of our lives. I hope that everyone else is well. We love you, and are so abundantly blessed with wonderful family and friends! 

Lil' Lily

It's been a while since I've posted anything new here, mainly because Facebook has taken over my life and taken the place of this blog. But I'm coming back because there is so much to say that can't be said by uploading an album to Facebook. Of course, you all know that since we talked last we had our baby girl, Lily! She is just precious; a complete joy in our lives. She is the last of the Nelson kids and we are so happy that our family is complete.

I am officially out of the "waking up every two hours in the middle of the night phase" with Lily. She sleeps through the night like a champ. Now if I could only get her older sister on board...she is going through the night-waking phase right now and I can't believe I get up with her more than our newborn! Ha. Such is life.

In other news, Sam is doing great in first grade. He had a rough start; getting used to all day school was hard for him. But now he is happily adjusted and doing well. Kyler is having a blast in our co-op preschool that we are doing. A group of us moms are doing it and Kyler doesn't know any different-he thinks he's in real school! He's so ready for Kindergarten. I've never seen a kid so excited for school. Rae has almost completely given up her finger sucking habit (as seen in the picture above.) We got some nasty tasting paint for her fingers and that really seemed to do the trick, as well as a reward system to get her an Aurora doll.

Life is great right now, not without our challenges (like less sun for the solar-powered momma) but all is well. We are extremely blessed and grateful to the Lord for our family.

Sam's Last Day of Kindergarten

Here is a letter I included in Sam's Kindergarten book:

Dear Sam,

What a joy Kindergarten has been! It has been so fun to watch you learn and grow. You have learned so well how to listen to your teacher and follow directions. You learned how to make friends and be a good friend. I've watched you learn your numbers; you've learned to add and subtract. You've amazed me as you've finished your homework book and learned to read. And now you read so well! You've learned to work hard and not give up when things get tough. You've chosen the right and been a good example when others weren't.

We've really grown together, haven't we?

Remember when you didn't know how to read, when you couldn't sit still, when you only drew scribbles? Remember when you couldn't run as fast or ryhme or count? It wasn't that long ago for me and it seems you've grown up so very fast that I can't keep up with you. But I am so very proud to watch how smart, how strong and how wonderful you've become.

Love,

Mom

May in a Blogshell

Kyler literally counted down the days for weeks until his t-ball would start. The morning of his first t-ball practice he sat in the car for an hour waiting for us to be ready to go. He loves t-ball, and was born to play. His smile says it all.

Kyler on base.

Sam mid-air competing in the long jump.

Cute little bikers.

Sam's sport of choice this Spring/Summer was track over t-ball. We weren't really surprised though, he's our little runner. Sam was the only 6 yrs. old brave enough to compete in the 400 m dash and he took 3rd place!

Me and the kids on our Memorial Day hike.

The kids were such good hikers, even Rae kept up without complaining.

Rae and her friend Emma.

At the annual neighborhood Memorial Day Breakfast.

Kyler would not be one-upped by his brother, he learned how to ride without training wheels the same day as Sam.

Sam learned how to ride his bike without training wheels after about 2 hours of crashing and getting up with a smile, never giving up. He said whenever he got frustrated he would just sing a song.

Sam at track practice, with his serious pose.

Sam's last soccer game, with his coach, Tim, and sporting off his new trophy! Great season guys!

Update on Accident

A lot has happened since my first blog, so I thought I would write an update to let you all know how things are going. Tuesday morning the insurance investigator came out to our house to review the damage to my car. He must have reviewed the police reports the night before because he had a completely different tone from when I first talked to him. The day before he almost made it sound like they actually believed I was at fault.

But the next morning when he came he was almost embarrassed at that point. He said that it was apparent that the lady never stopped, like she claimed she had, and that it was obviously her fault. He apologized to have to even investigate, but when a client lies about the accident and there are two conflicting stories they are required to investigate to get the truth. Thankfully the truth prevailed and I hate to say it, but I think it just made the lady that hit me look like a liar and really bad person.

Later that day I went in for my normal pregnancy check-up and mentioned that I had had some cramping and that I was recently in a car accident. My doctor was concerned and ordered an ultrasound to be performed at the hospital (which is next door to her office.) So I went in for the ultrasound and the radiologist found what he believed looked like some bleeding, either a blood clot or partial abruption to the placenta. They weren't sure though, because apparently bleeding is really hard to detect in an ultrasound because it looks a lot like a contraction. So they checked again in 30 minutes, thinking that if it was still there it wasn't a contraction. When they saw that it had not gone away, they contacted my doctor who then ordered that I be admitted to the hospital for an over-night stay and observance period.

They took a blood test to indicate whether or not it was baby's blood or mine, and it wasn't baby's so we passed the first test. Throughout the night they monitored mine and baby's vitals and we both seemed to be doing very well. We still had to rule out the presence of any bleeding though. That night Tim and Don gave me a priesthood blessing which gave me all the comfort and reassurance I needed that everything would be ok, no matter what happened.

The next morning they performed another ultrasound and to my surprise and the doctor's surprise they could no longer see any bleeding. Either it was never there in the first place (which I know is not the case because I saw the dark spot in the ultrasound they were pointing out) or it just completely resolved itself. Either way, baby and I got a clean bill of health and were sent home without any bed rest or worries of any sort. What a blessing!

We also got a call saying that the lady's insurance was going to pay for all repairs and rentals and anything else relating to the accident. I was so relieved, because even though it should have been a no-brainer, I was worried there for a while that the insurance company might just side with that lady to help their bottom line. I am so glad that they ended up doing the right thing. Whether or not they did the right thing because they were afraid of getting sued, who knows, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that everything worked out.

Farmer's (the lady's insurance company) set an appointment for the insurance adjuster to come out and estimate the cost of the repair on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, that just happened to be Tim's birthday. We knew we would be running errands all day, and luckily Tim had the day off work, but what a rotten way to spend your birthday! I tried to make the day special by decorating the house, and having the kids surprise him with a nice breakfast. Later in the day we also went out to dinner at Tim's favorite restaurant and then went mini golfing with the kids. 

We spent the whole rest of the day taking care of errands though. We had to drop off our car to get an estimate at the body shop, we had to get our rental (which we found out we'll be driving for at least 20 days), and we had to go buy three brand new car seats that were comparable to our old ones. Car seat shopping took forever just because it was hard to find ones that were like the old ones and Tim is so stinking honest he wouldn't settle for a more expensive version. I think it's important to be honest too, but I would have been more than happy with an upgrade :).

So now we are driving around in a new Dodge Caravan with new car seats and the kids think it's all pretty cool. They've thought this whole thing is cool, from the excitement of seeing a police officer to now having a new van to drive around in. Kids always have a way of looking at the positive side of things. Maybe that's because kids don't have to deal with insurance companies.

My Eventful Day

On the way to drop off Sam to Kindergarten, I was driving on Cherry Lane when all of the sudden I saw a car start to pullout of their driveway. I barely had enough time to lay on the horn and swerve out of the way as much as I could before the car crashed into the passenger side of my van. I crossed the double yellow line into the other lane as much as I could and almost hit two other oncoming cars in the process. The person who hit me never even slowed down or stopped, and just crashed right into me. She says she didn't even see me, but she should have heard me honking the horn! It all happened so fast, but she had time to respond to my horn and stop from backing out, but didn't. Luckily, a neighbor across the street was outside gardening and saw the whole thing. We called the police and had a police report filed. 

And it's a good thing too, because a few hours later I got a call from the lady's insurance company telling me she changed her story and now is trying to contest the accident and claim mutual fault. The insurance company claims that because I saw her I might have had the oppurtunity to stop and prevent it, and now they are performing a full-blown investigation. I can't believe it really. The police officer, the witness, and even the driver knew it was 100% her fault. I was just driving down the road. Yeah, I saw her, but it was milliseconds before she was ramming into the side of my car. Because I swerved, I prevented something much more serious from happening. My daughter was in the car on the side of impact and I am positive she would have sustained some injuries if I had not swerved as much as I did. Ultimately, she has no case and the investigation will prove that. I'm just annoyed that I have to go through this big long ordeal all because she is trying to cover her butt. 

None of us sustained any visible injuries and, like I said, the accident could have been much worse. I am worried whether the baby is ok or not, but I have an OB appointment tomorrow and they will check to make sure everything is alright. If it's not, I do have no-fault personal injury coverage which will cover all my medical bills without having to deal with the other lady's dishonest insurance. 

In the end, if her insurance claims mutual fault and doesn't pay for the repairs, then it's not the end of the world. It will be extremely unfair and dishonest of that woman, but what can you do? All I can do is tell the truth and hope her insurance company will do the right thing. Worse things could happen. We could have been seriously injured or killed. Thank goodness I was paying attention and was able to prevent further damage. We were pretty blessed that way. And the kids got a kick out of seeing the police officer. He made it a point to say hello to the kids and tell them how happy he was that they were wearing their seat belts and in their car seats. At least someone thought the excitement was cool.