3 Silly Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

One fell off and broke her leg:

Glass- I think this is what Abby is made of. We have another broken bone, her right leg. Last night while I was getting frosting ready so we could decorate cupcakes, the girls were playing on my bed having a pillow fight. I called them into the kitchen a few times to come but no answer. They couldn't hear me over their cheerful screaming and playing. I felt that I should go get them but didn't. I waited another minute or so, called them again, still no answer. Then I heard it, blood curling screaming. Abby had fallen off the bed (pushed by Kaitlyn in their pillow fight) and hurt her leg. Immediately looking at it you could see and big bump and she wouldn't let me touch it. I quickly called my mom and had her rush over so I could take Abby to the ER.

Abby cried as I carried her into the office and screamed as they x-rayed her leg. Sure enough she has a spiral break in her tibia. The Dr. at the children ER we were at was thinking she was going to need surgery that night because there was a floating bone. I then had to take her to the hospital, the needed to re-x-ray her leg (they didn't get high enough at the last place) and then we waited and waited and waited. Finally at 11:30 we were discharged to go home - 5 hours after this all started - with no other news except to call the orthopedic surgeon in the morning. The whole point of us going to the hospital from the children's ER was so that the orthopedic surgeon could come in and look at her and he didn't. Abby was very upset too when they had to cut her pants off to get the split on. It was a rough night and I think it was around 4 am when Abby finally feel asleep she was in so much pain.

Today at the Dr's we did have some good news, she does not need surgery. The surgeon said we're going to wait a week for the swelling to go down to cast her leg and that should be good enough. I'm so glad we didn't have to put her under and put a screw in her leg. The Dr. gave us some crutches and I thought it was pretty funny seeing how Abby couldn't stand to be moved and we'd use a wheelchair at the hospital and Dr's office. We ended up renting a wheelchair for a few days until some of the pain eases and we can try crutches. Abby likes driving around the house and it's good to get her up off the couch. She's handling it well but broken legs are a pain - arms are easier to deal with. I feel absolutely sick to my stomach that something like this has happened and crossing my fingers that this is the last time anything breaks on her. (I'm wanting to get a bone density test done). She is quite the trooper and here's hoping for a speedy recovery!

Abby and her new wheels

Random Thoughts

My friend Lisa has Friday Random thoughts on her blog and I like reading some of the little things going on that are too small to really blog about but fun to look back on when you want to remember those little things. So you might start seeing some random thoughts pop up here and there on the blog. The first one is a little longer than I thought it was going to be.

Letter Detective:

Kaitlyn is loving pre-school and is growing so much in the last 2 months. She got to play letter detective and find all the B's in our house. I love the get-up that is sent home.

Sock Hop:

Every year, Abby's school does a Sock hop with cake walk and little carnival type games. The day of the activity she mentions to me that she really wants to wear a poodle skirt because that's what most of the girls do. Luckily my mom saves everything and I had my old poodle skirt from when I was in 4th or 5th grade. With a little safety pinning and rolling we made it work.

Kaitlyn won some glasses in one of the games and kept saying how cool she was with them on.

Olivia loves to eat. She had a couple scoops of ice-cream and just wanted more and more. She is obsessed right now with Baby Einstein movies, turning lights on and off, puzzles and legos.

Sand in her shoes:

Kaitlyn came home from school and said she had sand in her shoes from playing in the sandbox. I had no idea how much until she dumped it all over the floor. This was pile #1. There was another pile a little smaller that I found later. I'm just wondering how she could have been wearing her shoes for a couple hours with all that sand and wood chips in it?

Insurance:

On Tuesday when I woke Olivia up from her nap, I noticed all this orange and yellow gunk coming out of her ear. After getting Abby from school we rushed over to Acute Kids to find out if there was anything wrong. Sure enough, Olivia's eardrum had burst in her right ear and the left was just ready to go. I felt horrible! For the past few weeks the only time Olivia was fussy was around midnight. Todd and I just thought it was a phase she was going through. Had no idea it was a double ear infection. There were no other signs. Once she got on meds that night, she's been sleeping soundly. When we got home I asked her where her owie was and she put her finger in her ear! D'oh!

Here's one of the medicines we needed to get, drops in her ears. The Dr. said it was very expensive and asked if we had good insurance. It's a good thing we do because this little bottle here would have cost $150!

BYU football

Cousin Benson, Abby, and Kaitlyn

We took the girls the their first BYU football game. It was a sad game to take them to but they still enjoyed themselves. They were faithful fans cheering them on still at the end. The final score was 31 to 3.

Cade, Laurie, and Benson

Writer's Workshop

Abby came home today with several pages of writing she has done at school for writer's workshop. I got a kick out of several of her pages and scanned them in to share. If you click on the picture, it will come up bigger. Her drawings are classic. I have been impressed with her writing and how far she has come since school started 2 months ago. Her spelling has improved through all the writing, you can see the differences from early Sept. (Rocky) to the end (soccer). Translations are printed underneath the picture.

Family Reunion

When I was at my Grandmas and Grandpas we had fun. I played with the dog a lot. We had lots and lots of cousins. The house was really, really, really big. On Thursday we had to go home again.

Rocky the Fish

Sept. 7, 2010

(we were fish sitting and the fish died within a few days)

There was a fish that was our friends. I got to feed Rocky. Rocky was orange. He lived in a container. We love Rocky. Rocky was fun to watch. Rocky died though. I was sad. But we had a great time. (Apparently Rocky had such a great time that it killed him.)

Dinner with the Princesses

When I was at Florida I ate with the princesses. Mom and dad called me Belle. It was at Disney World. It was great! Did you go there _____? (yes/no) If you were there was it great? I bet so. I love it too.

Selling Shirts

(I had to sell school shirts at a school ice-cream social, the girls were there to help)

At the school we sold shirts. We had ice cream first off. It was a lot of fun. We gone home late. I had a white shirt and pink skirt. I drew a picture that said "Get shirts!" It was good too.

Soccer

Sept. 23, 2010

When I played at soccer we scored a goal. It was great. Now we make a diamond. And it's a bigger field. We had fun. It was sweating hot too. I put the ball beside the goal and Alex kicked it in. This time two people are the captains. Last time the other team won. Now we scored 10 goals and the other team got zero. We won!

Kaitlyn "reading"

Kaitlyn gets a little "newspaper" from school and she came home "reading" it to me. I thought it was so cute I had to catch her on video.

Kaitlyn reading from sassy momma on Vimeo.

Pumpkins

Each year we head up the street to the pumpkin patch. I try to go at least once a week - it's free and the kids love it. So tonight after dinner we headed out and enjoyed the beautiful weather and empty pumpkin patch.

We love to...

See how we've grown...

(Olivia refused to stand against the sign, maybe next time)

Be a scary ghost...

Get lost in the hay maze....

How big is the pumpkin?

Riding the hayrides...

Getting out a lot of energy in bounce houses...

Go down slides...

and just plain have a great time.

I asked Olivia to sit on the big pumpkin and she thought she was really funny straddling the small one.

Kleine Oma

I am so glad that I have these final pictures of my grandmother. This picture was taken 2 months before she passed away.

My Oma passed away on the 21st of Sept. It was my mom's birthday. Kaitlyn, Olivia and I had lunch with my mom that day and that whole day Kaitlyn kept telling us, "call me Kaitlyn Elisabeth." Kaitlyn was named after my mom and my grandma. Maybe she knew something was coming.

When I talked to Abby the next morning to explain what happened, she said, "now she doesn't need to use her cane anymore. And she's probably young like you mom. I bet she's kissing her husband and she's with Jesus." Yes Abby, she is in a much better place.

As her home teacher said at her funeral, my Oma would sometimes say, "I think somebody forgot about me down here." He said he could see her now saying. "Finally!"

My Oma lived a long life and she was a strong woman. One of the stories my Uncle Verner told at her funeral was: After WWII, when my uncle was around 6 or 7 years of age and my mom a couple years younger, my Oma was pulling a wagon with my mom sitting on top of food. Germany still had many Russian and Mongolian soldiers in the country and when they saw a wagon, they knew it held food. No one had much food at that time and the soldiers were hungry. One soldier pulled his gun on my Oma and demanded she turn over the food. She stood there and firmly said "NO!" She then took his gun away from him and made him pull the wagon of food for her.

Thank you Todd for taking some time off of work and playing Mr. Mom while I was able to take off for the weekend and say a final good-bye to my grandma.

Elisabeth Charlotte Priesnitz Beck

Our beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother quietly passes away on Sept. 21st. She was born Aug 18, 1913 in Breslau, Germany. On Mar 19, 1935 she married Kurt Max Priesnitz who died May 20, 1960. Elisabeth emigrated to the United States in 1970 where she married Richard Kurt Beck in June of that year.

Richard and Elisabeth served a 2 year Church Mission in the LDS Temple in Zollikofen, Switzerland. Richard died Jun 25, 1995.

Elisabeth experienced both World War I and II while in Germany. She had a very full life dying shortly after her 97th birthday celebration with some of her family by her side. She is survived by her 3 children: Werner Kurt Priesntiz (Salt Lake City, UT); Brigitte Elisabeth Porter (L. Kent – Dallas, TX); Ursula Ruth Hartzheim (Hellmut – Duesseldorf, Germany); a sister, Ruth Schwigon (Oldenburg, Germany), 10 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and other relatives in Germany and the United States.

Funeral services will be held Friday, Oct 1st beginning at 12:00 P.M. at the LDS German Speaking Ward at 721 South 1200 East, Salt Lake City. A viewing will be held at Larkin Mortuary 260 East, South Temple, Thursday, Sep 30th, between the hours of 6 and 8 P.M. Friends may also meet at 11AM with the family at the LDS German Speaking Ward building on Friday. Interment will be at the Mountain View Memorial Estates, 3115 East, 7800 South immediately following the funeral service.

The family wishes to express appreciation for all her friends and those who helped care for her as her health faded. Also a very special thank you to Bishop Volker Hagen for his selfless dedication and service to Liesel for so many years.