Surgery

So dad's surgery went really well. Turned out they only had to do a triple bypass, that's soooo much better, sarcasm implied. But it went off without a hitch, and he's beginning recovery in the ICU for a couple days. He'll be in the hospital for the rest of the week, and then home to recover. He will not be allowed to drive, mow, sweep, paint, etc. for 8 weeks, which will be extremely difficult for him! But I'm sure my mom will keep him in tow. (toe?) Anyway, I'm glad he'll be back to his jovial self and hopefully by the time we see him at Christmas there will be no trace of this evil heart junk left.

I also went to the Ear Nose Throat guy today, after sitting in his office for 2 hrs! before I even saw the whites of his eyes, rhghghghghghghgh. He said unless I'm having serious troubles with these huge tonsils of mine, I can probably get by not taking them out right now. What with the move, a wedding, another much sicker patient in the home, oh yeah and that move, I think I'm better off waiting it out. If I have another couple bouts of tonsilitis or strep by the end of the year maybe I'll think about having it done in MO. And also we have horrible insurance right now, and will have even worse insurance in MO, and would have to pay the almost 3000$ it costs in full. Nope, not gonna do that so I can be in bed for 2 weeks while I'm trying to pack up a household. So decision made, not going to do it. I feel good about that, except that I was expecting to lose 10lbs easily :( Oh well, guess I'll have to do it the old fashioned way.

Dad's surgery

My dad is the BEST! and I love him very much. He's been having some shortness of breath and pains in his chest, so as soon as they got home from New Zealand he had a physical. They sent him to a cardiologist on Friday, who did some tests and said he should have a small surgery to see if there were any major blockages in his arteries. Well, he went this morning, and sure enough, there were some MAJOR blockages, so they took him in to do open heart surgery right then. He's having a quadruple bypass. This started around 10:30, and I haven't heard anything yet so I'm assuming no news is good news and everything is going fine. I'm sure he'll be fine, after some recovery time, and might be in better health getting this nipped in the bud. I'm just so glad he didn't have a heart attack or something before they got this taken care of. He'll be in the hospital around 6 days, and then home to take it easy for a good month or so. Hopefully he'll be well enough to attend Katie's wedding and festivities, but if we can just get him healthy for the long haul that will be a blessing enough! We love you dad and our thoughts and prayers are with you. We know you're going to be back to mowing your lawn and wrestling with the grandkids in no time! We Love You!

Here comes the Bridals

Our friend Joel Jenkins is a great photographer, and was hired by Katie and Brett to do their wedding stuff. We got Katie dolled up in her dress, hair, and make-up and took some bridal pictures at the ampitheatre in American Fork. It was a perfect day, even if it was a little hot, and she looked gorgeous! (especially the hair ;) that I did for her ) She wanted some shots of Joel taking the shots, so I took a few with my camera too. The ones Joel took turned out GREAT and she was really happy with them. He took some family pics for us too, he said we should have them tonight so I'll post them ASAP. I put Joel's website off to the right here, he does families, kids, weddings, and even does free engagements! with no contract, he just knows if you use him once you'll want to use him again! And he's very reasonably priced. So if you're in the need of some high quality photos, check him out!

My camera is being poopy and won't upload the rest for some reason. Anyway, they turned out cute! Congrats Kate!

Boys will be Boys

What is it about flashing lights, a big TV, and a race car wheel that turns 20 something's into little boys? I wish I knew. Chris decided to have a Mario Kart night with his best friends, Josh and Joel. They cooked brauts and ate chips, and then proceeded to play Mario Kart till their hands were crippled with carpultunal. I took the kids to Carl's Jr. so they could have some genuine Guy Time with no outside influences. They had a great time and are still playing into the wee hours of the morning. Awww, the simple things in life.

Chef! Don't look at my messy fridge!

You're gonna wish you hadn't taken this picture Josh!

Chris, Joel, Josh

Aww, so cute!

Girls will be Girls

Maci has had so much fun already this summer. She has played, played, and played with the neighbor girls and Tallie and Kenzie. Their favorite thing to do is to haul every scrap of dress-up paraphernalia and every Barbie/Princess doll she owns outside under a maple tree in the corner of our yard. They put blankets out all over the grass and then proceed to set up their house/castle with all the shoes laid out, the necklaces etc. hung from the tree branches, everything has its place. It's very cute, but makes a big mess. I've decided to stop cleaning and separating the items every night as they are carried out bright and early the next day. All the stuff is just mixed up all together in bins. Oh well, we'll sort it out eventually. The new addition to the game is a large cardboard box Grandma and Grandpa Boren donated from a new porch swing they just got. We cut some "windows" in it and it's a perfect little playhouse. We're glad she's so creative and likes to play outside in the summer.

Paris Lynn, Maci, and Gavin

First Camping of the Season

We're a little late on our first trip up the canyon, we usually try to go in the Spring sometime when it's still a little cooler. But this Spring it was QUITE cool for QUITE a long time! and then of course turned blazing hot overnight. But last night we decided to take our maiden voyage up AF Canyon to roast some weenies and set some mallows on fire. Chris's mom came with us. We had a great time, it was still hot even up the canyon but at least cooler than down here. We didn't even need jackets. Chris built a great fire, the kids climbed on rocks, and we just sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the canyon. We're going to miss the mountains! but hope the Ozarks will bring some of the fun that the Rockies do.

Gavin stealing a mallow, he preferred the uncooked kind, which is good 'cause the rest of his ended up in the fire. By the end of the night the kids were stealing them and throwing them into the fire to see them blow up.

They did a great job on their own roasting the dogs, only minimal amounts of ash :)

Perfectly roasted weener

"I so strong!"

Luckily we did not end up in the emergency room!

Yummm S'mores. I told Maci I would help her make a S'more right after I was done eating my hot dog. She watched me the whole time, and as soon as I took that last bite, she immediately asked, NOW can you make me a S'more?! Patient little girl!

Temple Day

We got to attend Katie's Endowment Ceremony prior to her getting married on the 19th. We went last Saturday. We had a wonderful time and I think she really enjoyed the day. We went to IHOP after for breakfast, yummm! Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day Katie and Brett!

Chris, Ali, Anne, Katie, Brett, Mom, Dad. (Ted and Kelli came but went to save seats at IHOP before we got a picture taken)

Awww aren't they cute!

All About Maci

Maci by her favorite ride at Disneyland, Thunder Mountain.

Well I did my little shpeal on Gavin so now I need to do one on Maci's favorite things and sayings. I don't remember a lot of things Maci said when she was little, but here's a few. I should have written these down when she was 2! My incentive to keep a better journal/blog.

Nilk-Milk She said this for the longest time and we thought it was so cute. We wanted to have a shirt made that said "Got Nilk?"
Nuseum-Museum Hmm we're seeing a pattern here! I never thought of that, but I guess M's are a little hard for her to say. She can say her name fine?!

Maci carried a dolly around with her everywhere when she was little till she was about 3. It was a pink dolly my friend Susan had given me at a baby shower. It had a little rattle on the inside. We lost dolly several times and got new ones, and also when dolly got too dirty to look clean even when we washed her. She would twirl dolly's ponytail around her finger when she needed comfort or was falling asleep. Gavin does the same thing with his blankie. So cute! I thought it was very sweet that she was so attached.
Here's the best pic I could find with a decent shot of Dolly, why didn't we take one?!

Maci loves to use big words and has always had a great vocabulary for her age. She talks very well and spoke in sentences far before Gavin has, but I guess that's the way it is with boys and girls.

• Maci's favorite things now, at 5 years old:
• Playing Dress-up, make-up, nails, shoes, the WORKS!
• Playing with friends, she has to have a friend over to think that the day has been a success.
• Playing with her brother, especially on the tramp or outside
• Going to the park
• Riding her bike
• Painting, coloring, she's a great artist
• Watching movies, her favorite is any Barbie movie, Mermaidia, Fairytopia, etc.
• Watching movies on the air mattress and having movie night!
• Going to Grandma W's for a sleepover (or Grandma B if she didn't live in her house!)
• Wrestling with Daddy, anything with Daddy

A Daddy's girl then, and now! (No fair the Chris looks EXACTLY the same!)

• Playing Nick Jr. games on the internet
• Painting a craft with Mommy
• Doing little chores, the glass doors and fingerprints are her favorite

Maci is such a great big sister. She and Gavin have their moments, but for the most part they are so cute together and play well together. She's very patient with him most of the time and is always willing to help him when he needs it. I heard them in the family room the other day wrestling, she had him pinned some way and was saying "Say you love me, I'm not letting go till you say you love me!" and they were both just howling with laughter. That's the kind of thing a mother loves to hear from her kids. You are my sunshine Mac, and I love you so much! I'm definitely going to go through withdrawals when school starts in the fall. We love you!

The two partners in crime.

Just some cute shots through the years. Awwwwww.

Gavy's Funny Phrases

So every time Gavin says something funny I think, I need to write that down. Well, tonight is the night! So here's a few of my favorite words that Gavin says, usually incorrectly, but it's so cute! I wish I would have done this with Maci, maybe I can remember a few for her too.

Badage-Garbage
Gogycle-Motorcycle
mall, quiggle, mell-any word with an s and then a consonant, he says without the s, so small is mall, it's very cute
Gola Bar- Granola Bar
Nogurt-Yogurt
Manich-Sandwhich
Haircut-Anything to do with his hair, "Don't mess up my haircut" if you rub his head.
Ghetti-Spaghetti
Nungy-Hungry
Bekdast-Breakfast
Wub U- Love You (That's my favorite one)

I may need to add to this list, because of course now that I'm thinking about it I can't think of the other ones!

Here's a few of Gavin's favorite things.
Fruit Snacks, Fruit Roll ups, anything with sugary fruit flavor
Jam or Cheese Maniches (see above translation)
Jumping on the tramp with his sister
Driving any kind of car around on the ground
Running through the sprinklers
Jamming out to music, he closes his eyes, and taps his hand against whatever he's sitting on, and rocks his head back and forth like Stevie Wonder
Helping Mommy clean the floors, or any cleaning for that matter, let's hope this one sticks!
Taking a bath
Playing Dress-Up, painting nails, and putting on lipstick (that's what you get when you have an older sister, I know I'll have to stop this soon, but for now it's cute)
Going to the park
Wrestling with Daddy
Pretending to be a Tiger

We went to Kung Fu Panda on Saturday and he loved the movie. He's quite taken with Tiger, every time she went off the screen he would ask where she went. A crush on a Tiger. . . hmm, but it is the voice of Angelina Jolie, so what do you expect!


Gavin is such a happy boy, most of the time. We love him and can't imagine our home without him running around in it! We love you Gav!

I'll do this with Maci tomorrow night.

Bouncin' off the Walls

We went to the funnest place today! It's off of 90th S. called Bouncin off the Walls. It's got blow up bounce houses, and is usually only used for private parties but on Wednesdays from 10-1 they let 5 and under bounce for 5$ each! They also have a family night on Weds from 6-10 or something, for 5$ as well. Compared to other bounce places that's a steal. My friend Katie told us about it and we met up with her there today. The kids had a great time and it was fun to get out of the hot weather and do something different. So thanks Kate for the tip!

It's a long climb, but it's worth it!



Weeeeeeeeeeeeee
Graceful, I know:)

Night out on the Town

So I haven't posted this week, it's been a busy one! It's been so great having my mom and dad back again. They've been getting settled, and we've been getting settled into their routine here in the house, etc. We've been to the park a lot this week with friends and cousins, ran lots of errands as always, went roller skating at Classic Skating, and went in search of hair clips to make hair flower bows out of. This took up at least 5 hours of my week, but I finally found them at. . . . Sally's Beauty Supply, duh! I looked at every craft store in both counties before I thought of that brilliant location, and there they were. So I've made about 15 hair bow flowers, my new favorite thing, some for friends, some for a baby shower, and some for Maci and I. So if you want a flower bow, you know who to ask! I'll give em to ya cheap. Maci is modeling one here :)

Anyway, Chris and I have been planning a night out for about a week now. Chris's dad gave us a gift certificate for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in SLC for Chris's graduation and we haven't had a chance to use it yet. So we swapped babysitting with a friend and went out last night. We decided to get all dolled up so it felt like a real special occasion, which it was! Chris wore his best suit and I wore a new dress I got for my sister's wedding in July. It was really fun to get dressed up and make it a special night. We dropped the kids off and drove up there. It was a perfect night, not too hot yet. The place is really nice, we got a great table. We both ate steaks, great salads, and the best sweet potatoes you've ever had in your life! Everyone we had asked about going there said we had to get those and they were right! The expense was out of sight, but you have to do that every once in a while I guess, and thankfully it was a gift! I don't see how people justify that very often, we would have been just as happy at The Rice King or something like that, but it was fun. I had a great night with my honey, and I'm so glad we still go on dates, even if it's not as often as we'd like. So to all who are reading this, go out on a date with your sweetie! It's the best time you can spend on your marriage, and I'm glad my sweetie thinks it's important. Love you babe, thanks for all you do!

Tonsils and Feet

So we've had a fun week. They say things come in three's, and we've had two pretty bad things happen this week so we're waiting for the 3rd shoe to drop so to speak. First off, I got my 2nd round of tonsilitis in 3 weeks. I could barely swallow due to my tonsils almost touching in my throat, so I drug myself into the Dr. again. He looked in my mouth for about two seconds and almost chuckled, and said, "I think it's about time you had those things taken out" Great! Just what every adult wants to hear. So he set me up an appointment to see a specialist about having them out. He said on average you're down on the couch around 2 weeks, well to a busy mom that sounds like about two years! So I'm hoping I'll be a miracle case and feel fine after two days. My consultation is on June 30th so we'll see what he says. Maybe there's a chance they're not bad enough or he thinks it doesn't need to be done, but I know in the long run it would be the best thing probably. But with my sister's wedding coming up soon and a move half way across the country, two weeks down right now just does not sound doable! So wish me luck on that one, if anyone out there has had an adult tonsilectomy let me know how it went for you.

Now on to #2. Chris signed up for a community soccer league, which I thought was great and would be so good for him. He had his first game on Saturday, he signed Katie up too which is fun. About 5 minutes in he says he thinks he hurt his foot, and is kind of limping on it. He plays the rest of the game, the foot definitely getting worse as the time goes by. But being the manly man he is he finishes out the game, not wanting to leave them one person short. He played a great game considering. Well, it gets worse as the day goes on, turning various shades of red, and now a yellowish and purple mix. He thinks he broke it! He broke that foot on his mission and this is in the same spot where that happened, he must have just hit the ball wrong or turned it funny. He says it's feeling a little better today and wants to let it go a couple more before we spend the money to have it looked at, we have really crappy insurance and will have to pay for all x-rays, etc. So, hopefully it will continue to get better the next couple days. It's up by the toes, and we didn't think you could sprain a spot like that?! Doesn't he have really long toes?! But who knows, maybe it was a freak thing and it will fix itself. Let's hope so!

Maybe the third thing doesn't have to be bad, maybe it'll be us winning the lottery or me a shopping spree at Tai Pan or something! I won't hold my breath :)

Many Happy Returns

Well after a long anticipated 18 month absence, my parents have returns home from the New Zealand mission. It's been hard having them gone and everyone was so excited for them to come home. We've been prepping, cleaning, scrubbing, mowing, sweeping, every square inch of the house and yard in order to get it up to "Boren" standards, and I think we achieved it. It's been quite exhausting actually, which makes me appreciate my mom even more because her house always looked like this despite having 7 kids, and now 24 grandkids. I don't know how she does it!
Katie, Dave, Ted, and I picked them up at the airport around 3:45 today, they've been in California seeing my sister Sarah for the past two days so the jetlag wasn't too bad. They looked. . . the same! as did most of us they returned to, except for a couple of the smaller ones who learned how to walk and talk while they were gone. Gavin was one of those, and seeing him get to know them even in this short amount of time was fun to see. He's already done the Haka dance with Grandpa and keeps asking where Grandma is when he can't see her.
Everyone was here, except for Sarah in California. So there were 38 of us in all. We had London Broil-Up, Cheese Bread, Kumara (Baked Potatoes), salads, and ice cream with all the fixin's including Hokey Pokey pieces. It was a great party and now that they're back it doesn't seem like they were gone that long! I hope it will feel that way when we return from our out-of-state ventures in a few years. That's the great thing about family, you always feel at home. We love you Mom and Dad!

Binkie Fairy

A friend of mine posted a blog about her daughter giving up her binkie to the Binkie Fairy, in return for a wonderful prize. In her case it was a Sleeping Beauty dress-up dress. Well, it worked flawlessly for her, so I thought I'd give it a try. Gavin is almost three and we just moved him to his big boy bed. So I thought I'd try this Binkie Fairy thing so we could get past another right of passage. He usually only has his binkie at nap and nightime, but still, he's almost 3! So we prepped him for a couple days, asking him what he wanted the Fairy to bring him in return for his binkie. He said he wanted a race car, easy enough!

So last night we said it was the big day, he put his binkie in the step stool the kids use to reach their clothes in the closet, that's his secret hiding spot I guess. We told him to look for a present in the morning. We thought he would cry, or at least not stay in bed, since now he can get out of his big boy bed, and come and get us to try and get his binkie back. To our surprise, he did none of the above, and went right to sleep! This could be attributed to the late hour, past ten o'clock, which is very late for him. We had a family thing that kept us up late. But we were so excited that it went off without a hitch. As usual, these things are much harder on the parents than the kids! We should have done it a long time ago, but it's kinda cute to see him sucking on that thing.

He awoke early, earlier than usual, I was hoping for a sleep in since they went to bed so late, but no such luck. We heard the pattering of feet, and a cry of glee when he found his new Speed Racer Race Car, as race car as you can get. Both he and Maci were shocked that they had not heard the Binkie Fairy sneek into their room, but she is magic you know. So he's been pushing it around all day and loving it, definitely a good trade for the worn out binkie. I awaited nap time in anxious anticipation, he asked for the binkie but I said the Fairy took all of them and we didn't have any, and that seemed to suffice for him. He hasn't come out of the room yet, maybe we're home free! So to all those out there still reluctant to take that binkie away, try the Binkie Fairy, worked like a charm for us!Now we have to tackle Potty Training, any of you genius moms got any bright ideas on this one?? He's completely uninterested. Arggghh.

Quote of the Day:
Maci referring to Gavin's new car,
"Wow, that's a BIG race car, I thought she's bring a medium sized race car"
We aim to please :)

Trailer-load of memories

We had our yard sale yesterday. It went pretty well, had a good turn out and made enough to make it worth, besides the fact that it made us go through all our junk and get rid of some of it. It was hard to see some of it go, but it went to good homes, I hope! We piled the rest in the trailer, and took it to D.I. We had everything from things that have hung in the kid's rooms since they were little, to books we've read them at night, and stuffies they've loved and snuggled with at night time and when they need a little extra love. Why is it so hard to get rid of these things!, just stuff that takes up space, but that hold so many great memories for us. Thanks to a tear-jerking email from my mom reminiscing about all the things she misses about her children that are not small anymore, I've really tried to enjoy my kids more. Every moment, every book read, every bath given, every extra snuggle, even every tear that I can comfort and dry. The stuffies are nice, but it's my kids that I should really cherish, not the stuff. So I'm going to try and do that more every day and not sweat the small stuff that gets in the way.

Quote of the Day
A realization Gavin had in the car today,
"Mommy, I'm not a baby. I can talk"
Don't remind me Gav, I need my baby back!