Brought to you by the Letter C and the Number 9.....

February was brought to us by the Letter C and the number 9.

Letter C stands for Clint. Clint is the newest member of our family.

He lives in Mexico with his parents. They came to Utah/Idaho to visit, and we drove to meet him for our Rodeo Break. Rodeo Break is when the rodeo comes to town, and there is no school for 2 days. We get this instead of President's Day. To avoid any confusion, Clint is our newest nephew. We are still in the process of trying to adopt. We are hopeful. Thank you for your continued support.

While in Idaho, we suppered with all the Idaho Kirkhams to welcome Clint,

snowmobiled,

Lava Hot Springsed,

learned how to ski (3 of us learned to ski,)

and celebrated 4 March birthdays all in 48 hours.

We then drove 14+ hours to make it as far Phoenix area. We loved to meet Clint and be with family who spoiled us.

We thank Auntie Yvette for outfitting us in snow pants since we don't really need that living here. 

I finally decided on a haircut that I like after having my haircut 3 times in 4 months.

It was my birthday on the day I cut it. My 30s decade is almost up,

and I'm going to make the most of it.

The boys participate in a robotics club. During February they built and presented a Lego robotics model.

They were each on their teams. The models were great.

They had fun doing the projects as well.

Underfoot celebrated his birthday. He shared treats in his class.

He asked for a orange cake and chocolate cake.

I made a piñata cake.

This was really fun surprise. The number 9 is because two of us turned 9 years old.

Be well.

Aquaponics and Influenza A

The week started normal with everyone going to their jobs. On Tuesday after school, Hurricane said he didn't feel well. I wondered if he didn't want to go to piano lessons. After taking his temperature (101.4), he went to bed.

By bedtime his temperature was 103.8, and he had no desire to move any where. He slept Wednesday. Underfoot stayed home because he didn't want to go to school and had a cough that he had been struggling to overcome.

Lance came and went to work while Hurricane and I hung out in his room "getting" better. When we gave him a bath on Thursday night, purple bruises showed up on the back of his leg.

Never having seen that before we called the best doctor we know, Uncle Shaun, and asked him if we should head to the emergency room or wait it out until morning and see the pediatrician. Uncle Shaun said he'd learn about it and get back to us. He said something about purpura. And as is due diligence we wikied the definition which is "a rash of purple spots on the skin caused by internal bleeding from small blood vessels." We decided to wait until seeing our local doctor.

Midway through the week Aunt Jill sent a package that boosted spirits. The Yoda and books were a perfect spirit lifter.

Underfoot woke up Friday with a temperature, and it was Lance's Friday off. We made a family trip of going to the doctor. She confirmed that Hurricane had Henoch-Scholein Purpura and that we would need to bring in urine samples over the next 3 weeks to check that there was no blood in his urine.

She also swabbed his nose to check for flu. The flu was confirmed as A. Underfoot was then prescribed Tamiflu, and Dr. Herron suggested Lance and I start Tamiflu as well. By the way, Tamiflu is rather expensive with insurance.

Underfoot started with his fever Friday evening and is getting better. The Tamiflu has helped a lot.

While Hurricane was sick with a high fever, he mentioned that if he had enough money he would buy his Dad a new car, his Mom a new sewing machine, and Underfoot and himself all the new Lego sets coming out for the next year.

The weekend was spent drinking water, eating blandish food, and rest. Lance was taking care of weekend jobs while I cared for children. We are all mending well.

Lance sold his aquaponics system this last weekend as well. He posted it a week ago and helped the couple load it up.

The reason is that Lance felt that it was time. He has really enjoyed the experiment and hopes to make a better system later down the road. We all had mixed feelings about the system going. We aren't sure how we will attract bees at this point for our yard.

Be well.

Superheated Underwear

It has been a long time since I've written the weekly email. Too long, perhaps. The recent weeks, Wendy and I have contemplated our life circumstances. We've had the chance to talk about the pains we've experienced along the way. We have talked about joy and sadness, about heartache and heart break.

The interesting irony of life is that you don't always know where it will lead you. I graduated from High School 20 years ago. I would have never guessed I'd be in Arizona working on missiles.

On Saturday we ran some errands in town. I happened to be driving and I was horribly lost. Wendy knew exactly where we were and chose not say anything. In the middle of this, we heard Hurricane say to Underfoot, " and he put on his super heated underwear and ... " The two were talking about there Lego figures fighting bad guys in the Arctic. For some reason, the super heated underwear comment just was so funny to us.

We wish the best for you and your family, where ever you may be.

Here are a few pictures from our week. We hope you enjoy them.

Auntie Yvette sent a picture she took of our family 

when we went hiking with her. 

She sent the picture after she got home.

 Night time ritual of reading a book with Daddy.

 Underfoot was ready for the light to be turned out so he could sleep.

This was a sunset on the way to drop something off.

The clouds had feathered beautifully.

Cobb Salad was supper one night.

 Here is a picture with the green of the salad.

Pinewood Derby and Lost Tooth

Underfoot participated in his Cub Pack's Pinewood Derby. He didn't care if he won or not. He just wanted to have fun. And he did. He didn't win.

 The pack held an early weight-in which made our morning very smooth for an 8 am race day. He raced his car 6 times on the 6 lane track, cheered for his friends, and ate muffins and juice at the end.

Hurricane lost his tooth. The tooth started to be loose in November. He didn't want to loose it until my birthday in February. He would push the tooth out of his mouth so it would hang over his lip with his mouth closed. This looked gross.

So finally this last week I told him if he didn't go to bed I would take out his tooth. He didn't go to bed so I pulled the tooth out. He got 25 cents out of the deal.

Lance's sister, Yvette, and 3 of her children came to visit as they drove through on their way home from a trip from Florida.

We were excited to have them visit for 24 hours. We went to both visitor centers for the Saguaro National Park.

All the children worked and received their Junior Ranger badges.

Lance pulled out the International Scout for a drive with Yvette.

Their Grandparents Locey took their grandchildren  in the Scout. When filling the car with fuel, the fuel line broke because the gas line tubing had cracked. Lance lay down on the ground and plugged the line with his finger until he remembered he had a pen in the jockey box of the Scout. After 2 trips to the auto parts store, the fuel filter was replaced with new clamps. We are grateful that the problem occurred at the gas station instead of driving down the road. Lance and Yvette rode together catching up.

We finished pruning our trees as the East Coast got piled with snow.

We got snow too the week before. We put a light on the citrus trees and took pictures.

We've started tracking the number of eggs we get each day following the example at Camp Kirkham. Since January 1, we've collected 93 eggs as of Saturday.

We've added a light to their coop so the ladies are getting 14 hours of light. The egg production went up after they finished molting and got more light. We've even had 1 double yolk egg.

Be Well.

Christmas, New Year's, and Return to Schedule

Christmas - The 3 Kings arrived. The boys were very concerned that the Kings wouldn't show up and had a real difficult time going to sleep. They finally fell asleep around 10:30 pm.

Through out December they had come across some consequences due to their behavior. The month was one of learning for parents as well as children.

Visit to Uncle T-Bone and Auntie M's house - On Christmas Day, we visited and stayed with Uncle T-Bone and Auntie M. Uncle F came from Utah to spend Christmas as did Grandpa and Grandma Locey. We stayed the weekend together. Boys played with cousins, swam in the heated hot tub and not heated pool, and were blessed with remote control cars from the Auntie M's family.

New Year's Eve - During our break we cleaned out closets and the garage. We were invited to our neighbor's for New Year's Eve.

We talked. The boys played games. We came home for a New York midnight.

We celebrated by lighting sparklers in the backyard.

New Year's Bowling - As is tradition, we went bowling, and everyone got a strike.

After bowling, the Earls invited us for a turkey supper.

Pruning - Always in January over winter break, we prune the trees. We have 6 grape vines, a blackberry bramble, and 9 deciduous trees.

Before dark we had prune and chipped 7 of the trees, pulled out old blackberry stalks and burned them, and cut back 80% of the grape vines making 11 wreaths to dry and chipping the rest of the excess. The chickens also got a clean house as well.

Back to School - We went back to school and started off great. No one was late the first week. Yesterday we were late, and today Hurricane stayed home from school with a croupy cough and a cold sore that he didn't want to pop at school. Underfoot called about 45 minutes into school to see if he could come home too.

Día de Los Tres Reyes Magos - The 3 Kings show up in the rest of the world 12 days after Christmas.

We prepared for the Kings, and they came bringing small treats of gum, soda, and cookies.

We had a nice family supper that night with Rosca de Reyes.

 

YSA Activities - YSA stands for Young Single Adults. We've been asked to minister to this group through church. Even though there is a congregation specific to this age group of 18-30 years old, the meeting place is 45 minutes from where we live in one direction. We hosted a supper and watch a devotional by Russel M. and Wendy Nelson. Nineteen YSAs came for supper, a devotional, and food. We hope to build faith and strength for this group.

Christmas Skunk

Greetings.

It has been some time since we last sent out an update. As you can imagine, we've been busy.

Hurricane writes:
I saw a skunk. It was not spraying. It was in our yard. Me and Underfoot found it's hiding place. It was hiding under ground. It did not smell good. It did not smell bad.

It was trying to eat our chickens. Somebody came and took the skunk away. Then they let it go. The end.

Lance writes:
We noticed that something was digging near our chicken coop. One Saturday morning, I noticed the distinctive look of a skunk tail poking out from underneath the scout. I went all the way around the house to get a better look (from a safe distance, of course!) To my surprise, I found myself face to face with a skunk. He was not more than 4 feet away, happily sitting on the front passenger tire of the scout. In an effort to encourage the skunk to leave, I started up the scout. Unfortunately, the skunk went into the back yard, rather than the front yard.

A friend was kind enough to loan us a trap. After 4 unsuccessful attempts, I was able to catch him. The trick was to tie up the meat in a piece of wire and hang it in the right place. That caused the skunk to have to work at getting the bait. Just minutes after setting the trap, I heard the unmistakable sound of the trap door, closing behind him. My heart was racing as I approached the trap with a towel to cover the skunk. In the morning my friend who loaned me the trap picked up the skunk and released him in the desert.

Hurricane writes:
I didn't play very well. I was playing Ode to Joy. I also played Deb Kahora.

Lance writes:
In other news, Underfoot had a piano recital as well.

He played O Christmas Tree and sounded beautiful. He performed a duet with another piano student. It was nice to have the duets because the total length of the recital was about half as long as last year. Over the last 3 weeks, Wendy went to a continuing education class. We decided early in our marriage for her to keep her counseling license current as an insurance policy. At church our congregation was put into a new stake. A stake is a collection of wards (congregations). Also Wendy got her hair styled. It looks better than I thought it would.  Hurricane also had a Polar Express day at school and a school musical performance.

We hope your Christmas and holiday preparations bring you the joy you seek. A tradition we've always loved is an Advent calendar that focuses on Jesus Christ and the promised blessings he brought because he was born.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving. In preparations for going, we did the normal things like clean house, ask someone to watch our animals, took care of the trees, and packed. My hair has gotten heavy. The morning we left I cut 11 inches off, which was 3 ounces. My headaches stopped.

We took 3 days to travel north and stopped to see some of our favorite people. We stopped in Las Vegas and saw the Ryan family. On our way north we stopped in St. George.

After continuing on our journey, we saw Grandpa Hoggan, the Locey family that was in Utah, my cousin, Nicol Brown, and Sweetheart's former roommate, Kevin Funk.

While in Utah, we went to BYU to show the campus to a young man that we brought with us on our trip. He is hoping to attend the University after he graduates from high school. While in Provo, we moved kitchen appliances for Aunt Laura Jane when we stopped by her house. Aunt Laura Jane took the boys and spoiled them with gifts and food. We stayed with Grandpa Hoggan.

While with him, we went and saw Uncle Jerry, Sweetheart and my matchmaker's father, and attended church with them. In the afternoon, we had a Locey Thanksgiving supper at Alma and Yvette's home. So much fun to see so many family members. 

 

Hurricane had had a fever for a few days that wasn't going away. He and I made a visit to the urgent care with a strep throat diagnosis. Hurricane chose to wear a mask our family while the antibiotics kicked in. He was faithful in wearing the mask.

On Monday we went to Temple Square

and saw all the visitor centers

and the Conference Center.

We ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry. Everyone thought the food was super yummy. We finally made it to Idaho that evening to amazing hosts.

Sweetheart sat down with Scott and listed all his favorite things to do in Idaho:

go to the cabin, shoot guns at the cabin, ride in the Fire Truck,

go to the car museum, soak at Lava, and see the heavy machinery. These are many of our boys and my favorite things as well. Scott and Jill made all of our dreams come true and added to more to what we did. They added to our adventure by giving us 10 days of Turkey gifts, going for a late night drive in the snow,

growing a turkey and allowing Sweetheart to chop its head off, drawing blueprints for a contraption,

hosting a seafood night with Shaun and Katie's family who came from Missouri,

and eating a farewell lunch at El Heredero again with Katie and Shaun. They gave us a lot of their time and all of the love as we were there.

Scott showed us while at the cabin how he cut down his Christmas tree.

He took a shotgun and 3 shots later had a tree. Last year the chain saw didn't work as well so they improved the method.

Moving machinery gave Hurricane the opportunity to drive an excavator.

He loves driving the excavator with Uncle Scott supervising.

One of the games was to sit in the bucket and to spin around like at an amusement park. They all laughed and laughed and laughed.

The boys were spoiled to have their cousins' attention.

They played games, sledded, watched movies, put together puzzles, and had sleep overs.

Hurricane's only wish was to play in the snow, and he got his wish. It snowed for 2 days making a blanket of snow to sled and play.

 

Thanksgiving was held at Meridell with my Dad's siblings, their children, and married spouses families.

We had such a marvelous time. It was a potluck meal with Scott and Jill bringing the homegrown turkey.

Carbonated apple cider from Meridell was provided along with all our favorites and some new favorites.

Aunt Karol made a beautiful t-shirt quilt for Scott that she presented at the feast. We took family pictures,

saw deer run through the property, and called my parents on their mission to say hello to everyone.

On our last day in Idaho, the adult girls went and shopped in the morning, and Sweetheart packed up. He commented later he doesn't know how I remember everything. We went to lunch one last time together at El Heredero and then off to 1st Street to the car museum. A collection of arcade machines have been added since our last visit, and Sweetheart played Ghouls and Ghosts. Scott said Sweetheart was pretty good.

Scott started up the fire engine and took everyone for a ride. I was awed at how much they were willing to do for us.

We learned while on the fire truck that Clint A. Kirkham had been born in Cozemel, Mexico. He is the new member of the Kirkham family. We said our goodbyes, went and

got a dip top ice cream from Tasty Treat in honor of Gramps, and headed to Salt Lake.

We hit Temple Square again and saw the Christmas light come on for the first night of this Christmas season.

The Church History Museum has been modified, and we toured the new displays. We were very impressed by the displays and what we saw. We stopped again to see Grandpa Hoggan, but he wasn't home. And we stayed at Beck and Michelle's home.

We got up and went to Las Vegas. The adults went to the Wicked Spoon.

The children were to go to sleep, but when we arrived home around midnight, they were still partying.

After settling down, we slept and got up for church services. We returned home that evening.

We are THANKFUL for the many, many blessings we have. With the many sad and horrible things in the world, we are GRATEFUL for family that love us and we love to be around. We are so happy to have spent time with all of them.