Going Deaf?

Back in August, shortly after the start of school, Steve hadn't been hearing so well for a couple of days.  He actually couldn't hear at all out of his left ear.  You can imagine what a second-grader could get away with when the teacher can't hear what is going on behind his turned back.  So, after school we went to get it checked out. 

Growing up, Steve was no stranger to partial deafness.  He punctured a hole into his eardrum on several occasions, at least 4 times in his life.  You see, something would happen- a lit firecracker housed in a pop can would explode right by his ear before he threw it, a kick to his head in mid-air from a flying companion riding a water banana, an unintentional head-butt during a friendly basketball game-  you know, the usual knocks of growing up, and each time his ear drum would rupture, he could inhale a deep breath and blow air out his damaged ear.  Then he would be deaf in that ear until it healed up. 

Well, this time around was different.  He could not blow air out of his ear.  The doctor took a look in his ear and took a step back, looked Steve in the eye and said, "wax-maker."  His nurse came in shortly after to clean out his waxed-up ear.  With warm water and a syringe, and with me as an assistant, we got that ear hearing again. 

Leaving the doctor's office, Steve could hear better than he had in a long time and he noticed that his other ear (the one that had a lot of scar tissue from past eardrum ruptures) couldn't hear as well.  That's something he hadn't noticed in a while.

Halloween was Fun!

In addition to trick or treating in Grandma's neighborhood in Roosevelt, we attended our ward's annual trunk or treat, grandma's ward's trunk or treat, school Halloween parties (I was in charge of both Lily and Amara's classes), and our local grocery store's Halloween party. Needless to say, we handed out all 200 pieces of candy and our girls came home with a HAULING! They ate some of it and left the rest for the candy fairy which in turn left them some little pet shop toys.

We had fun carving our pumpkins a few nights before and when Halloween rolled around, everyone but Steve dressed up. Most years he's appeased me and wore whatever I gave him, but this year he outright refused. Maybe next year I'll get him! This year I was a capoeirista, Lily was a black cat on Halloween and a witch at her school party, and Amara was a princess at school and a chicken and a ladybug at the different trunk or treats. No purchasing costumes this year, just making do with what was around, just like what I grew up doing. :)

School Has Begun! ...ahem,3 months ago.

 Lily is in Steve's 2nd grade class and Amara has begun Kindergarten!  I'm so behind in blogging, but when school started (3 months ago), it was an important day in our family.  We all go to the same school for half the day (then Steve and Lily finish out the day while Amara and I go home).  I get to help out in the classroom every morning while Amara is in Kindergarten.  I've really enjoyed getting to witness first hand what my hubby's job is like and help out with all the ins and outs.  I also get to volunteer for Amara's class.  I love that I'm well enough to do these things because nothing gives me more joy than being with my family and volunteering. 

"I'm in my dad's class."

Hard at work.

The bulletin board

Amara's first day of school was a week later.

It was a bright morning.

Amara reading to Lily in her classroom before school starts

Amara with her teacher, Miss Porter.  She loves her tons.

Pick up line in front of the school

She had a great day and loves Kindergarten.

The smilebox below has some pictures from the first few weeks of school in Steve's class.  It was made as an ad to get more volunteers and was on the smartboard in Steve's classroom during back-to-school night.  And yes, our back-to-school night was almost a month after school started.

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Made At Home Restaurant

 Our family got to be a part of my mom and Tom's anniversary celebration.  The day was a Sunday back in August, and my mom acquired some special Italian recipes to make for her hubby (and us).  She came over in the afternoon and started preparations.  Lily and Amara were the servers for our "double date."  They actually were more than servers.  They made the menus and helped set the table and I think they even helped with some of the food prep, but I can't remember.

It was a fun and memorable evening with very tasty food!

Pretty table setting :)

Lily gave her menu to Tom

Amara gave her menu to mom.

Amara's menu

Front of Lily's menu

Inside Lily's menu

Remember the 2012 Lauret Olympics?

This past summer in August, our family traveled to the far-reaches of the Utah universe to an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow-polka-dot town named Antimony (minus the yellow polka-dots).  It was time for the Lauret family reunion! 

Although not all Laurets/Bennions were able to be there for the entire reunion, most were able to be there, and we all had a great time.

Practicing for the games...

 The theme of the reunion was the Olympics, and Dad and Deb planned out hours of Olympic fun for us.  I remember cookie eating contests, balloon juggling contests, straw hammer throw, paper plate discus throw, hula hooping, shotput, kids foot race, and I know I'm missing more events, but it was quite the undertaking- like 2-3 hours worth of hot competition under the sizzling sun.  I tried to film most of the events, but I grossly underestimated how long we'd be at it.  I think my camcorder's battery died half-way in, but what I did capture is found in the slideshow below. 

Before the opening ceremonies, we each made our own family flag to represent the country we chose.  The meal we were assigned to make was supposed to reflect our country's cuisine in some fashion.  Since our family made the Kickin' Chicken Quesadillas, we decided to represent "Foulandia."  Most, if not all, of the countries people chose were made up.  I don't remember who won overall- in fact, I don't know if we ever even determined that- which to me means that it was a success.  It wasn't about the competition so much as it was about having fun and making memories.

Maizie had lots of fun on the swing.

 We also did a lot of other fun things like: went to Otter Creek (10 min. away) to fish and boat and play at the beach; had a birthday party; made crafts; rode the 4-wheeler; watched the Olympics on TV; went on the huge swing; found scorpions; fished the pond in the front; did a little service project of weeding and making benches for the firepit; and did a lot of visiting, eating, and enjoying the scenery.

My buddy Maizie gives the best smiles!

I'm so glad April took me to this hugely fun swing!

I put all the photos and video into a slideshow which ended up being pretty long, so if you plan to watch all the video, be prepared with a bag of popcorn!  Thanks for a good time everyone!

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The Ward Pioneer Picnic and Tom's Ice Cream Party

Our ward puts on an annual picnic and kid's parade each year to celebrate Pioneer Day.  This year, April and Devon were here visiting and they joined mom and our family for the event.  It was a lot of fun!  We had a potluck picnic with salads, sides, desserts, and BBQ beef sandwiches.  The weather was perfect and the wind cooperated just in time for the festivities.  Crafts for the kids followed after the picnic, then the parade.  Kids could decorate and bring their bikes or wagons to accompany them if they wanted to.  Lily wanted to be an ox and pull her toy wagon which she would decorate to look like a covered wagon.  She's the cutest ox I've ever seen.  She made little horns from paper and attached them to a hair band to wear around her head.  Amara cut out strips of paper and colored them with markers, then taped them all over her bike for homemade streamers.  The parade was cute and I have video in the slideshow I put together...  Steve and I also were asked to participate in a square dance, and although the idea was met with a little reluctance at first, we had fun getting to know the dance and our ward members (no video of that).

This slideshow customized with Smilebox

After the fun night, we decided to take Tom out for his birthday dessert while April was still in town.  We went to Rocky's Place and everyone (except me who can't eat sugar) had yummy ice cream treats.  Devon was definitely tired was was temporarily pacified by bites of ice cream being sneaked his way.  Steve was re-living being a kid again as his cone disintegrated in his hand.  Lily and Amara shared a very loaded banana split sundae complete with fudge, nuts, marshmallow creme, and cherries.  Tom, April, and mom all had shakes with yummy mix-ins.  It was late, we were sticky, and we all had a good time.

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Amara's Birthday- She's a Whole Hand!

We were still on our camping trip when Amara's 5th birthday rolled around.  We didn't stop the fun, but just continued on the rest of the day in celebration of Amara.  We woke up to a rock chuck sitting on the porch of the guard station we were staying at.  Surely he was there to wish Amara a happy birthday!  We pulled out the present that Grandma and Grandpa Christensen sent in the mail a few days prior.  She couldn't wait to see what she got!

 It was a bunch of fun books.  That is perfect for a little girl like her who knows how to read and often will pick up books to read to herself or others.

 After the Ranger visited us, he left Amara and Lily a sticker and a frisbee.  They had fun with it while we packed up our stuff.

 Goodbye Guard Station!  It was fun, but we're ready for our real beds.

 The views were spectacular on the way back into Vernal.  We still had some morning left when we arrived in Vernal, so we took the kids to the Kid's Canal in Vernal where they could go fishing.  We saw 2 fish about 4 inches long, but they weren't biting the powerbait we brought.  Amara did catch something, though...

 ...a mess of sticks and weeds.

While in Vernal we had Amara choose where she wanted to eat for her birthday lunch and she chose Golden Corral (with a little mild persuasion from Steve).  She loves the chocolate wonderfall, the ice cream with candies you can dump all over it, and the cotton candy.  All the other food is just there for decoration. 

After we ate, we went to Walmart to buy her a birthday present.  She got to pick one and Lily got to pick one to give her.  She picked a pack of horses that came with a saddle and reins, which she absolutely loves!  Before she got this toy, she would take her other toy horses and use the clay we have to make them saddles and reins so her toys could ride them properly.  Lily got her a little dog that wags it's tail and moves it's head when you pet it.  Amara loves puppies and playing like she is one, so of course she loved this little pet.  I find it all over the house in "beds" that Amara has made out of dish cloths or boxes or baskets or shoes or whatever she can find.

 

Before we left Walmart, we picked up an extra ice block.  We had plans for that.  We decided to go ice-blocking down the hill by our church with the leftover ice chunks from our cooler.

 The day didn't end with ice blocking!  We got showered up and went bowling at the new Ute Bowling Alley in Fort Duchesne.  It was a lot of fun!  They had a few bugs in their scoring software (not that it mattered much), but other than that we had fun bowling with bumpers.  They had bowling balls that were light weight for kids.

 Amara had a technique that seemed to work for her.  She'd roll the ball down the lane, then lay down and point which direction the ball needed to go.  With bumper bowling, I really thought I'd have no problem breaking 100 this time, but no luck.  Our final scores ranged between 68-115.

I don't remember where we went out to eat that night, but I remember that I ran to the store and bought some goodies to make a quick cake for Amara.  I used Little Debby Zebra Cakes and Cosmic brownies and sandwiched a layer of ice cream in the middle to make her 5-minute-ice-cream cake.

 Grandma came over for cake and brought her gift for Amara.

 Hurry!  The ice cream is melting!