Darin is 11!!!!!

This is my second child, Darin. He is 11 today!!! He was my biggest baby and now is my skinniest preteen. How I love this boy. As a baby, he was chunky and always laughing. He is 3 years behind Brandon. Brandon was so happy to have a sibling but was a little disappointed that he did not come out ready to play. In fact his exact words "All he does is cry, cry and then he poops". Classic!!

Darin is also one very smart kid. He taught himself to read in kindergarten. He read a short book to me and I thought he had it memorized. So I went and got another easy reading book and he read it!! I was shocked and just a little embarrassed that I was not the one to help him. He currently is in the 5th grade and reading and testing at a 9th grade level. I love that as I love to read and am glad he does too. Now if we can just get those fractions in his head.....

He was my fastest labor and delivery. I worked the whole day and then came home with back pain. Did not think too much of it as I thought this cannot be labor. My first child was induced so I had no clue what the beginning of labor felt like. After about an hour the contractions were getting closer. Rich's parents had just called us up and invited us out to eat. We were pretty poor then so I was not about to pass up free food - heck no! So we went out to eat and I just kept having contractions:) But I was nice and full. Finally Rich and his sisters said enough was enough and that I better get to the hospital. So we left Brandon with Grandma and off we went. I got to the hospital and was dilated to a 7!! Darin made his appearance 2 hours later after no epidural and just Stadol. Note to self, I never did that again!!! It hurt like heck and was not worth the pain (at least not for me). Plus they had to use forceps because I was not pushing but just screaming:) I will get a slide show up of Darin, as the kids love to have one of them. I am so glad he is in our family and cannot believe he is 11!

Pass it on

Pay it forward chain
So my dear Friend started this chain.
If you want to do it great,if not no big deal. Here is how to play.the first 3 people to post on this blog will receive a handmade "pay it forward" gift from me.This is how it works...So, if anyone out there is up for the challenge...1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.2. Winners must post this challenge on their own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that counts!4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along.Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward. My email is rsrhoton@cox.net. Let's have fun playing this pay it forward and thanks LisaLou for keeping it going. I cannot wait to see what I get:) And I am letting you in on a secret that I love to quilt! Mary, you better answer and send me those beach pics! The one of you and Keith together this last trip is adorable!

What I learned today

Just wanted to share what I learned in counseling today. I don't feel bad saying I am going to counseling as we all have issues but mine need to be addressed now! I am also thankful for LDS social services as I can go to a counselor and know that I have someone helping me thru this with the same core beliefs in a Heavenly Father who loves us and his Son who is also here to help us.

Anyway, today was the first day and he put up a diagram of how he intervenes to help his patients have healthy coping mechanisms ( dang, shopping did not count!!!). His diagram went like this......Event (any event, does not have to be big or tragic) causes our thought process to kick in and then we react. He said the thought process kicks into action in a matter of seconds and sometimes we do not even realize what we are thinking, thus the reaction. He gave an example of a kid in junior high school, getting a drink of water. While getting a drink of water, the kid gets bumped. His reaction could be to hit the offender, run and hide out of embarrassment or some other reaction. Now, what if the offended turned around and realized it was just a little kid who accidentally bumped into him because the halls were so crowded? Would our reaction be different? Mine would be, I would tell the kid it was ok and things were fine.

The other part (or ladder) of the thought process goes up. Dang it, I forgot the middle part but the top part is our core beliefs. I need to ask for the diagram so that I can fill in the middle as it is just as important as the top. Say you were abused as a child - your core belief is that you hit when any event happens. So what if it is just a little kid who bumps you, you still hit. Your thought process is that any time you are hit, you hit back. So the idea behind this counseling is getting into the thought process and how to stop certain behaviors (reactions) when any event occurs ( and I am not saying that I am hitting;)). I absolutely love the idea of being able to stop and think and rationalize why I am doing certain behaviours instead of cycling thru event=bad reaction. It was a light bulb moment!!!

I am sharing this as I hope it might help someone else who might need it. Counseling can be good and not scary:)

policeman

My digital camera broke after 8 years;( Guess it is time to buy a new one as my second son got his arrow of light yesterday and I had to rely on friends for pictures. Which means I am now waiting for her to email them over. I am not too excited how I look since there was a Tball game right before and I was hot and sweating!

None of this has to do with the real reason I am writing the post. Now I am past the embarrassemnt I will share:) All the kids were gone to school and preschool so I thought perfect time to take a shower. We have a big master bath with windows that I normally kept shut. I am having the joy of starting menopause (which can go on for years I am told - so not fair!!). I had the air on and was still hot. Decided no one was home so i would just get ready in my birthday suit!!

My Maltese, Snowball, loves to bark. I was drying my hair and heard him barking. He quickly came into my room and sat at my feet, which was weird. He normally will go outside and bark too. Might I add I also have the doorbell disconnected as I did it when we moved in here with the 4 th boy being one. Figured that if someone wants me bad enough they will knock.

Now back to the fun part of the story. I was singing, blowdryng my hair in my birthday suit when all of a sudden I saw cops swarming my back yard! My first thought was they were after me seeing as how the truancy board came to my house( wh0le different story) How dumb was that?! So I grabbed my jammies and went out the front door around to the side gate to ask what the heck was going on. Never occuried to me these are armed men and I should not just go la -de -daing into my back yard! They also had our pool gate open and the one officer shooed the nightgown clad lady with the awesome hairdo back into my house. He finally came to our door and stated the lady behind us had called in a burglary. Let me start by saying this is the same house that karoake's till midnight and I can smell pot drifiting over!

The suspect was apprehended in my pool area. All I can say is thank goodness for the prompt reply of these policemem or that burgalar could have easily ended up in my house since the backyard was unlocked!!! That will teach me to do my hairdrying in my birthday suit in my bathroom. I do believe this incidence has added 10 years to my life!!

Dancing Pictures

My friend, Michelle Devine, took these pictures of Camryn at Miss Beverly's Dance Loft. I love the pink and black look and think she did an awesome job. She also takes family portraits and I have seen those too. Awesome!! It has been fun to have a girl to take to dance lessons ( i offered it to all 4 of my boys and they said no way).

No Doubt and Paramore

I am so excited!! Rich and I are going to see No Doubt and Paramore in concert on May 23rd at the Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix, Arizona. Last year we had tickets for Gwen Stefani for my birthday but she cancelled the Phoenix show. Rich went online last night and they had reduced the lawn tickets to $15 dollars. Yay us!! We may not be able to see as well but it is going to be good times:) The last concert I saw was Ricky Martin (amazing show) but we payed way to much for tickets to sit in the nosebleed section.

I will take lots of pictures of us having a great time!

New Moon

Video

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This is a clip I found on TwilightMoms about the Mitch Hansen band. He read all the Twilight books in a week and then proceeded to write a whole album about the series. The first one is called Jacob Black and is kind of funny! The second is a lullaby he wrote. The band is going to be one of the featured artists on the New Moon CD. Enjoy (and I concede that Jill is the biggest Twilight fan:) )

Easter Pictures

Easter 2009 is here! We have church at 8 am so we took 2 sets of pictures as Brandon gets to the church at 7 am so set up chairs in the overflow for the extra people. I sure love him for doing this service each and every Sunday!

Camryn had to be held. Starting from far left is Dylan, Colton, Brandon behind him, Darin holding Camryn.

My boys and Colton turned his head at the last second!!

Rich and I. Darin took the picture:)

Dylan and Darin. Best friends and buddies with the occasional knock down drag out fight. Oh well, guess all families have to deal with that!

My 2 babies, Colton and Camryn. Colton was so excited to wear his fancy clothes. I had to get them out last night and hang them on the back of the door so that he would know right where they were.

The lower 4 - Dylan, Colton, Darin and Camryn. Brandon was already at church setting up chairs.

My mom and dad are sweethearts and send us money each year to buy the kids new Easter outfits and I love it as they get to wear them the rest of the year. Brandon opted for 2 new ties ( the other is an awesome pink one). With only 1 girl I tend to have a blast shopping for her dress. Did not make one this year but found this dress at JC Penny. It is called the "Cinderella Dress" and she is in love with it. Had a little fight getting it off of her after church.

I am so thankfull for the atonement of Jesus Christ and for his sacrifice for us. I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and for all the values and knowledge it gives us. We had great talks and the choir sang. But it still did not beat the Bell Choir my dad leads and puts lots of time into in Sandy, Utah. Wish I lived closer so I could just pop over and hear it and bells playing is an amazing arrangement and really puts you in the spirit. One year I will make it up there for Easter and be able to hear this one as welll as the Christmas Day bell Choir. Hope you all have a great Easter and were able to feel the atonement working in their lives today.

Way to go THUNDER!!

Here are 4 boys who are best friends as well as baseball buddies. They play for the Thunder minors team this year in 4 peaks baseball in Mesa, AZ. My son Dylan is on the far left, Jonathon Nussbaum, Nicolas Nussbaum, and then my son Darin are in the above picture. They are a young team and have won only 2 games so far this year. I wanted to share a quick story about their thursday night win.

Dylan may look big but is only 9 years old. He is one of 2 boys that has volunteered to play catcher. That is a hard position no matter what age you are. He has to squat down (which he is very good at), wear all that gear, be right behind the batter and be able to make good decisions on what plays to make. He is working on this as mentally it can be hard for a 9 year old to have to pay attention to the whole field and decide where the play is at. He has taken this on with great confidence and not too much backtalking to the umpire (just kidding:))

The game started with Darin pitching. He threw lots of strikes and did a great job. Jonathon spent last year in the outfield but has progressed to being a great first baseman. I have seen him outrun the other players to first base as well as make some wonderful catches. All this has happened because he has practiced and perservered in wanting to be a good player. All of his hard work has payed off:)

We were down by 2 points in the last inning but thank goodness we were home team. The boys were pumped up and determined to win this. The first 2 boys were walked to first base. Then Jonathon came up to bat. The last 2 years the poor boy has been a ball magnet! Everytime he was up to bat he was always hit by a stray pitch. But did he give up and quit? Nope! He practiced and practiced. This boys can now smack that ball a good distance and so far has not been pegged by the ball. In a key play, Jonathon stepped up to the plate with confidence and a smile:) He hit the first pitch and it was a huge line drive right thru second base area. He made it to first base and got two of our players home (one being his brother, Nick). Next up was Dylan and he was walked to first base and Jonathon was on second base. Darin hit a solid hit down midfield and was able to bring Jonathon and Dylan home and thus we won the game! All of us parents were high fiving, screaming and dancing around. The best part was to see the boys line up at the end of the game and have the hugest smile on their faces.

My moral to this story is that practice and not letting our fears overcome us can lead to great things. Jon could have easily quit and said he was tired of being hit. Instead, he practiced and built up his confidence. I am so thankful for our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gives us these opportunites to shine and make the best of ourselves in our lives.

Day of Contrasts

Boy, I have been slacking!!! Busy week last week and I volunteered (haha more like got strong armed into it) picking up extra days at work. Thank goodness I have 2 days of down time. I missed conference due to work and am so thankful for TiVo!!

Last Sunday was a day of contrasts for me. It first started with a patient who was having horrible chest pain and me driving like crazy to make it 55 miles quickly. Won't say how fast I got there but it was quick:) Sweet lady was made comfortable (and I lucked out as she was LDS and I put on conference as a distraction to help her thru the pain) and then sent to our inpatient unit. Hospices have inpatient units to send patients to instead of the hospital. She arrived safely, was made comfortable and was able to pass on and see her sweetie pie on the other side of the veil.

I then got the call I had been waiting eagerly for the past week. My baby brother, Gerald, and his wife Becky had their 3rd baby. Eleanor Renee Fowkes was born on conference Sunday. Sweet girl weighed in at 10 lbs 11 oz and 22 and 3/4 inches long. Way to go Becky!!! Each of her babies has gotten bigger at birth and I honestly do not know how she delivers such big babies. My biggest was 7 lbs 3 oz and that was big enough for me!! Eleanor has dark hair and looks alot like her big sister, Scout. I was also very touched as they named her middle name after my mother. I love the name and think it sounds very regal. They are going to call her Elli and I cannot wait for the day I can meet her. They live in Virginia and I live in AZ so it might be awhile.

My day continued with going to do continuous care for another sweet lady who had lung cancer with brain mets and was dying. Hospice offers continuous care for patients who want to stay at their own place but need round the clock care. Was not really ready for this emotionally or physically. I did the total care on her for 18 hours. That involved turning her, cleaning her, giving her medicine, consoling the family and trying to talk the group home into letting the daughter spend the night. Very exhausting work!! Much to my disbelief the group home would not let the daughter spend the night. Here her mother was passing on and all she asked for was to stay with her mom for these last precious moments. I got into a very big arguement with the group home owner (I kept my temper and was diplomatic) but nothing I said would budge her. I tried all the tricks and played on her emotions all to no avail. The daughter did go home but with the promise I would sit by her mom all night long, and I did. I sat in a hard back kitchen chair and took care of the patient. It has taken me 4 days to catch up on sleep but I was honored to be with her during her last hours on this earth. Was also glad that the daughter trusted me enough to stay with her mom with the promise I would call with any change. I did call the daughter to come back at 6 am as her mom was changing rapidly. She thankfully was able to be there with her mom holding her hand as her mom passed onto the other side.

So there was a birth and a death both in the same day. I realize this happens all the time but I am usually not having this happen to me! I am also glad for this week I have had to recouperate as well as reflect back on our beliefs of an eternal family and how thankful I am for our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Colton's 6th birthday

I cannot believe my last boy is six!! He is still my baby and in fact I still call him my baby boy every night before bed. He still gives me lots of hugs and kisses and I love that he is still young enough to be genuinely happy when I show up in his class room. I brought him treats today at kindergarten and he ran right up to me and gave me the biggest hug! Made this mom's day:)

He was born 3 years after the 3rd boy. When I was first pregnant, I was convinced this was my girl. He had to be as how could Heavenly Father give me 4 boys? He was also going to be our last child so he had to be a girl. I have to say I was so upset when they said he was a boy at the ultrasound that I cried. Kind of silly but I did. I am so glad he was a boy as we were intended to have 4 boys in our family. I always teased Grandpa Rhoton that he kept praying for boys and to stop. He wants to have the Rhoton name carried on. He did pray for a girl with Camryn!

I was put on bedrest with him at 7 months and wondered how I would ever do this with 3 other kids. I had 4 of the best friends in the world step up to the plate and bring me dinner for the entire time I was on bedrest. No one asked them to, they just did. It was such a relief for me and Colton only came 2 weeks early so I know the blessing of them bringing in meals helped relieve that stress part for me.

He was born at 9 pm at night after laboring and walking the halls and outside of the hospital for 5 hours. He had red hair just like the previous 3 and looked just like them too. Rich and I laugh as we said we have a mold going on and he did not break it! He weighed 7lbs 3 oz and is the biggest baby I had. I feel blessed to have had smaller babies as it made for easy delivery. We chose the name Colton as it was one that my dad had said he liked and we liked it too. His middle name is Mitchell and we stole that from a family friends little boy. We thought it sounded good with Colton. The funniest part is he has a first and last name that sound similar- Colton Rhoton. He got used to the noise at our house very quickly. I could put him in his swing and he would fall alseep all on his own. In fact, when he finally moved to his crib we could not get him out until he was 4! I figured he would not sleep in it forever and he now is in a bunk bed with his sister.

He had a hard time when Camryn was born as she was 22 months behind him. He cried for 2 days straight and reverted back to baby behavior for awhile. There were times I wondered if something was mentally wrong with him or if he was autistic. Come to find out he is just stubborn! If he does not want to do something, he won't. A perfect example is his first day of preschool. He was 3, cried when he got there but I did not get a phone call so I figured he must be ok. I went back to pick him up and he was sitting in the same spot as when I had left. The teacher said everytime she said "Come do this Colton, he would just scream no". Now that he is in kindergarten he has stopped that behavior at school but we do see it at home sometimes.

He also was very shy and was not a talker until kindergarten this year. Our nickname for Colton was BooBoo. Not that he was a mistake but we called him that after Yogi bears little friend. The name stuck for about 3 years. He is now just called Colton. Now I cannot get him to be quiet as he has just blossomed being in school. Our friends, the Nussbaums, say that Colton will talk and talk to them where before he was just quiet. Just ask my dad about the last time they came to visit. Colton talked and talked for the whole first hour after they came. My dad kept asking if it was his bedtime and Colton kept saying nope!

He is finally playing T-ball like his brothers did and is having the best time. He has wanted to play for the last 2 years and is so proud that he is playing. It helps to have 2 of his best buddies on the team too. He actually has a game tonight so I am going to take some pictures. Rich actually cancelled his baseball practice so he could come to his birthday game.

We are so glad to have him in our family and I am truly happy to have 4 boys. Heavenly Father did know what he was doing when he sent him to be a part of our family. Colton, we love you!!

Colton's 6th Birthday