Broken bone

This is Chloe's broken ankle.  It is certainly odd shaped in this photo, but the photo doesn't do justice to the oddness of it. :)

How did it happen?  Well, she might tell you that she "was skydiving from her airplane and had planned to land on her jet ski, when she slipped and fell".  But the real story is, she was ice skating and twisted her ankle too far.  

Rusty and I were out on our weekly Friday night date (with friends, Mark & Teri, Gena & Steve, Jenn & Todd) and had just ordered dessert (a delicious pazookie from BJ's) when we got her hysterical call.  Those who know Chloe know she is the dramatic type and so we talked to her and decided we had time to eat our pazookie (cookie with ice cream).  We ate, talked and paid the bill.  Hey!  In our defense, we left before our friends!  When we got to the skating rink, we felt a little bad.  Her ankle was looking pretty swollen and she was still pretty upset.  Rusty scooped her up and took her too the car and we went to the ER.  We spent the next 5 hours or so there.  And it is a fracture of the growth plate, which sounds worrisome, but actually they say that complications with this particular fracture are rare and she should heal normally.  

So, crutches, temporary cast.  Oh ya, and the nurse had to cut her pants off!  We had just got them and she was wearing them for the 1st time this day!  (I didn't feel too bad, they were $6 from Target.)

We got a real kick out of her sitting in this enormous wheel chair!  We could probably fit 2 of her in it.  She was actually kind of excited about the prospect of getting a cast.  She had a broken foot a few years ago, but it didn't require a hard cast.  She definitely felt jilted!  :)

We feel really lucky that it was only her ankle.  And we feel this is a sign.  :)  One of her best friends, Sarah, broke her jaw last fall at said skating rink and so I think the rink is banned for a while!  

Ms. Rachel's piano recital

Starting at the front: MaryJane Marsh, 

McKade Pay, Bake Muirbrook, Ellie Marsh

Rohit Singh, Austin Muirbrook, Noah Jorgensen, Chloe Marsh, Madison Muirbrook,

Summer Jorgensen, Ellie Ekstrom, Porter Marsh and me (Ms. Rachel)

All right, no one really calls me Ms. Rachel.  But it is cute, right?  Anyway, we always celebrate the years accomplishments with a recital in Jan or Feb.  Here is this years crew.  I was looking back at 2007's program and noticed that I have been teaching some of these kids for a while now!  It is so great to see their progression!  I started Summer and Ellie E.  And they are both getting really good.  Can you believe how many boys I have?  Half and half!  (I actually am not 'teaching' Porter, Chloe and Ellie.  But hey, they perform at my recitals anyway cause I'm the mom and it gives them a chance to play for an audience.)

My living room is transformed for the evening.  Several pieces of furniture go to the garage.  The couches get moved around a bit and many chairs are brought in.  We sat about 30 people in that front room.  Not too shabby.

I've told my kids for several years that they could quit piano lessons at age 16.  Last year I started feeling this age loom in the not too distance future for Porter and changed my mind to age 18...as I am allowed to do...It's my prerogative as a parent, right?  I've had some backlash from my change in the 'rule' as you can imagine.  

I love the beach.

Every January we have a few days of summer-like weather. Seriously, every year. That was this week and I have been itching to get down to the beach and soak it up. Ren and his friend, Tate and I spent 3 wonderful hours reading, lounging, running, digging, splashing, laughing, chasing birds and playing! Ok, I was doing the reading and lounging and the boys were doing all the other stuff. I think it was one of the most perfect days ever!

Ren and Tate enjoy their strawberry applesauce with a straw.  MJ discovered this was a great way to eat this delicacy at school.  :)

This is the tunnel that you walk through to get down to this particular beach.  It is painted in a bright colored mural of the sea and all sorts of creatures.  We love to make noises in the tunnel, or whistle or hoot in here cause of the echo.  The boys did some  ahhhs to hear themselves ring.  

Tate's mom said he went right to bed that night and slept late into the next morning.  And Ren went to bed at 5 pm without dinner he was so exhausted.  Then he woke at 6:30 am starving!

Ms. Browne's piano recital

(Disclaimer...I'm trying to load these videos...I've only gotten one to 'stick' so far.  The others just aren't working but I'll keep trying...)

Porter, Chloe and Ellie started taking piano lessons from Ms. Browne in September.  I really like her.  She seems to really try to give them pieces that they enjoy (esp Porter).  Plus they have already grown under her care.  :)  I think there can be advantages to having more than one teacher throughout your learning career.  Their previous teacher went off to college so we didn't have a choice, and I think its been good for them.  I've enjoyed Ms. Browne because I've been able to see another teaching style and compare it to my own and even make adjustments that I hope will benefit my students.

Chloe, Josh (one of Porter's friends) and Porter receive applause after a job well done.

Listen if you dare...it is long! :)  Porter played Trouble by ColdPlay.  He is really into playing popular music that you might hear on the radio.  I've seen a real improvement in his playing and his enjoyment as well.  He isn't complaining quite as much about practice, in fact, I think he practiced one day without me asking him to do it.  Miracle!

Ellie and these two girls (who I don't know) played a really nice trio together.  I think it was a favorite of the whole event!  They did such a great job and worked really hard to be in sync with one another.

Ellie's solo was Cossack's ride.  She played it well, not too fast.  At home she'd race through but she said the keys on this piano were harder to play so she had to slow down.

Chloe and her duet partner, Amanda played a really cool rag piece...give it a listen!

Chloe's solo "Rage Over a Lost Penny" is below...

Two Cute Girls

MJ and Ava play DS together.  They synced the game they were playing (I may be wrong on the lingo) but they sure had fun.  We are so glad to live near our cousins!

MJ and Ren are showing off their pink Slurpee tongues!  MaryJane's winter soccer season started last week.  I was actually hot at the game today...and the players were really hot!  I think it may have been around 80 degrees.  I know, we are wimps.  It was a gorgeous day, I know a lot of friends who went to the beach!  

This has been an interesting, stressful week.  Many good things, but an underlying worry.  Rebecca was in the hospital again.  She had some crazy symptoms including more headaches and then really weird things like speaking a little nonsensical and not being able to recall her last name.  So, I would think of posting things and just not be able to get past worrying about her, didn't what to say, etc, so I just didn't post anything.  Worry casts a doubt or shadow over everything.  We are so thankful that she is now home and doing much better.  She was still dealing with meningitis along with a few other things.  She is on the mend!  What a relief.

In other news...MJ and Ellie had their 1st school play practice this week.  They are doing the play Mulan.  MJ is a dressmaker and Ellie is a hairdresser.  I am helping with the music some again this year, so got to attend practice too.  This seems like a pretty intensive show, a ton of work.  It was a little crazy that I was helping to teach the kids a song that I'd never seen before that day!  They actually did pretty well considering.  I was given my music and will feel much more prepared next rehearsal.  :)

On Tuesday Chloe was home sick.  She felt a little warm that morning before school so stayed home to rest.  We hung out and watched Bachelor from the night before.  She seemed so normal, I thought she may have been exaggerating a bit.  She went on Wednesday morning...Well, Ren and I went off to Disneyland, where we met up with his cousins including Alex who was celebrating his 4th Birthday!  Yay!  Of course, I get a call from the health office at school.  Chloe had a fever and I needed to pick her up.  What to do?  I wracked my brain for a solution...and called my very lovely friend, Teri to pick her up and drop her at home.  So, Ren and I stayed and played for about 3 hours.  We had so much fun, but I won't be getting any mother of the year awards for leaving my feverish daughter at home alone to suffer.  ;)

 Ren and Alex love the Astro Blasters-Buzz Lightyear ride.  There is always a long line for this one, but we got right on this day.  Light crowds = more fun!  You can see Tony beside the boys, leaning out of their car maybe?

 Ava, Alex and Ren show off their Birthday celebration pins.  I counted 1 2 3 and then took this pic, and as I said 3, Ren's hands exploded out in front of him!  Natalie and I laughed, we weren't sure what he was trying to do.

 Everyone loves the teacups.

 Look at this little darling Addy!

 These cute boys!  They were loving this ride.  Just a simple carousel but I think they had the most fun!  They giggled back and forth the whole time.  I wish I'd been in front of them to catch some of Alex's expressions and maybe what they were saying!  They make me smile!

So, to continue on with the Disneyland theme...the whole family went on Friday night.  We have passes that expire in February, so are trying to get the maximum use from them!  :)  We were lucky, the lines were very reasonable.  In fact, Porter, Chloe (who was finally better from her flu, she missed 3 days of school!) and Chloe's friend, Mia got straight onto California Screamin', which is unheard of!  And me and the little kids got right on Splash Mountian, which is always busy.  The only thing I wish we'd gone on was Space Mountain, the line was 45 min.  I haven't been on that in years!  Next time.  

Elle, Ren and MJ are toys...Ren doesn't very happy about it!

 But here he is very happy, sugar can do that for you...sometimes.  This carmel popcorn is very good too, btw.

 This rocket ride is a fun one.  MJ insisted on riding herself, so I rode with Ellie while Ren and Rus rode together.  We had such a fun night.  We stayed late, about 11ish.

Before Rusty met us there (he came straight from work) the little kids and I decided to ride the big Mickey ferris wheel.  There are swinging cars and non, we thought we might as well go BIG and get a swinging car.  I don't think we'll do that again!  :)  Before the ride even started Ellie was crying.  One of the worker guys came and talked to her about how it wasn't really scary and they sent us on our way...up!  The first time around was fine since the ride kept starting and stopping to let others off or on.  The second time around was pretty frightening actually!  I started recording some with my little flip video camera, but had to turn it off due to the outrageous screaming and crying going on our car!  It was all fine and we were laughing and screaming a bit, then MJ wigged!  She just got freaked out and started to cry and scream.  She was really scared.  I'd share the video but I don't know how to post that, yet.  I'll figure it out and add it later.  It is hysterical!  I can laugh now, but I was a little scared too!

Friday date night

 DMV appointment this morning.  Time to renew my license.  I took this photo of Ren there.  It is probably as good as the one they took of me just a few minutes later.  At least he looks cute despite the bad florescent lighting.  I was looking at my old license, you know the one that was good last week, but expired this week.  It was from 5 years ago and I definitely look younger.  Hmmm.  And a few pounds lighter.  I really wanted to lie on my weight, cause you know, I have plans to be a lighter me in a few months...:)  And in a few months that would be outdated.  But I didn't.  I just couldn't do it.  What if the person looked things over and thought, ya right, 125 my foot!  :)  Or something to that effect?  That might be funny if it weren't about me.  My recommendation, If you have to go to the DMV (which you should avoid if at all possible) always make an appointment.  I got to 'cut' in front of a lot of people cause I had an appointment.

 Friday night = date night.  Ever since Porter has been able to babysit, which is about 2 years, Rusty and I try to sneak away on Friday night.  Get yogurt or chips and salsa or dinner or ...hey a trend.  Mostly we eat out on Friday night.  We may hit a movie, pretty unlikely, you know me and movies.  (If you don't know, I don't loving going to a movie in the theaters, though I enjoy them at home.)  Tonight we did something different.  Our Disneyland passes expire in February so we thought we'd go just the 2 of us and hit a few rides, grab a churro (or a chimichanga in our case) or whatever.  It was pretty packed, but we walked around a lot and did go on one of my favorite rides, Soarin Over California!  I can almost smell the citrus now!  :)  That is so beautiful, how do they do it?  Rus and I think they should make a movie like that!  I bet a lot of people would pay good money to see it, oh wait, they already do, at California Adventure.  We were also laughing at ourselves for not being able to take a decent self portrait.  Chloe has it down to a science but we kept chopping our heads or our chins off.  Anyway, we a had a super fun time!  Sorry kids, you can come next time.  

Singing

I am really lucky to get to sing in our stake choir.  I think we have about 75 or so in our group.  And we are really good, if I do say so myself.  :)  Tonight we were singing Praise to the Man and the men were singing by themselves in 3 part harmony.  They sounded heavenly... And all of the sudden I thought of my Dad and almost thought I heard him singing right then.  I wonder if I've heard him sing that before or something?  Anyway, my dad has a really great voice, very soothing and warm.  Both his speaking voice and singing voice are beautiful and comforting.

Thats all folks.

My Boys

My first cute boy...Wednesdays are piano lesson day.  Porter preps for his coming lesson above.  He would rather I wouldn't take photos of him and stops to tell me so.  :)  I have been so encouraged lately.  He gets really excited about certain songs that he is learning.  He recently learned the popular song "Apologize" and now is working on "Trouble" and is doing really well.  It makes me so happy watching him play.  He isn't complaining near as much about it and is getting really pretty good.

My other cute boy...Ren wanted to ride scooters today.  He rides it on the sidewalk right in front of the house.  As you can see, this is one of the older kids scooter, but he likes it better than his.  Go figure?  He loves being outside too.  I sat on the porch and took his picture and read my book.  (Whenever he wants me to hang out and watch him, he says to get my book and come outside.)

back to life, back to reality

We got a rude awakening when that alarm went off after our weeks of late nights and sleeping in... Porter gets up at 5:40 for seminary. He is such a good kid. Don't tell him, but I don't know if I could have done it! Those early mornings are killer. I set my alarm, listen for him in the shower and then doze until my second alarm wakes me again at 6:15 to drive him. I rarely have to go get him up, he just does it.

So, MJ lost a tooth over Christmas break. She's been working on that tooth for a while and was so excited to finally get a visit from the tooth fairy. Well, our tooth fairy is a little lax and sometimes forgets to come apparently.

Last night, MJ writes this whole long letter to her tooth fairy. She folds it up and places it in a sealed envelope on which she writes in purple crayon"To: toothfairy From: MaryJane Marsh" By the way, the second 'o' in tooth is shaped like a tooth! So cute!

Her letter reads "dear toothfairy, I am so sorry I don't have my tooth for you I had all my cousens over when I lost my tooth they stayed up so late you could not come and when they left it disapeared so I do not have it right now It would be good if you gave me something and when I find my tooth I will put it under my pillow and then we will be even! from: MaryJane Marsh"

IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST? Ok, she needs some more guidance with punctuation...but of course, the tooth fairy thinks she is irresistable and gave her a little surprise. And true to her word, she searched for her tooth after school. I told her not to worry about it, that the tooth fairy doesn't really need the tooth, but I'd touch base with him just in case! (yes our tooth fairy is a boy)

School, housework, homework, etc. Gotta love the schedule and routine of it all. Ren and I did break away from chores to get frozen yogurt with our friends Elizabeth and Chase. :)

Family night was fun! We talked about New Years Resolutions and set a few. I love the new year! It feels so fresh. I love evaluating last year and making new goals for this one. Though I didn't do everything on my list (that would have been miraculous, as it was very long) in 2010, I know I can do better this coming! So, our family set goals tonight.

MJ concentrates.

Chloe shows off her finished list.

Rusty can't do much of anything without this  monkey on his back. :)

I love 11 AM church meetings!  Look, we even get to eat breakfast if we want to!  Ren is eating some very delicious cinnamon rolls that Uncle Greg made (thanks Gregers)!

So, New Year in church = new classes and teachers for kids!  I took MJ and Ren up to primary (ya!  Ren is a Sunbeam!) and had to do a double take.  MJ is now in Senior Primary!  Yikes, I hadn't thought that one through.  It made a little sad that she and Ren wouldn't be together at all.  Ren didn't seem to mind.  I subed in primary as pianist so had a birds eye view of Ren on that front row.  He was so good and reverent.  He would raise his hand whenever everyone else would and I think his teacher only had to tell him to sit down once. :)  I could tell he was getting antsy when he took off his tie and started swinging it around and around.  It was low and he was in a little chair so no one seemed to notice.  After several swings I caught his eye and had him bring it to me.  Then he was mostly paying attention.  He seemed to really be watching what all the other kids were doing cause he was copying them.  He makes me smile!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Ok, Happy New Year to all of you too!  I have the best birthday of anyone I know.  Rusty always has work off on my birthday, in fact, many people do.  :)  And my kids are all home to take care of me and meet my every need and whim.  I'm especially lucky this birthday because Rebecca and her family have been here this week.  We've enjoyed each others company very much.

Some crazy things happened, like Rebs going into the hospital after her eye exam where they found retinal swelling.  They sent her to the ER where she and I stayed until 3:30 am, waiting for her to be admitted.  Then she stayed for 3 nights having many tests and diagnosis, including glaucoma, brain tumor, brain cyst and finally the correct one, meningitis.  She is being treated and feels sooo much better!  The silver lining...they got to stay with us a few more days due to the unexpected ER experience, and she and I spent several alone hours in her hosp room playing Phase 10 and 5 Crowns while talking and laughing.  We really feel it was a miracle that she is ok and realize again how fragile our lives are.  I am so thankful to have Rebecca for my sister.

In photo: Ellie, Porter, Blake, Jesse, Ren, Birthday Girl, MaryJane and Cecilee