Happy Thanksgiving

Another thanksgiving has come and gone.  This year was a Clark year and Julie volunteered her house to host the festivities.
We headed to her house around 11:30. The kids were very excited to get to play with their cousins all day.
We got right to work when we got there. We helped get the tables and chairs ready. I helped set the tables and made them look super nice. The weather was pretty nice so we were able to set up tables outside for the kids to sit at.

After it was all set up we got to hangout and chat while the rest of the food was being finished.  We started a little later then expected but it all turned out great. The food was yummy and their was plenty for everyone.
After eating we helped clean up and put things away. Once it was all cleaned we sat around the family room chatting until it was Thanksgiving Bingo time.
We played multiple rounds until most people got a prize. All who played had a great time.

After Bingo it was time for pie. It was still light out so the kids got to go back outside to eat their pie while we ate at the table inside. The pies were all delicious. After cleaning up pie time we got ready for the lip singing competition.
Averee worked with all the kids and got them all ready for their performances. I told her I'd do a number but then didn't plan anything.  I ended up doing "All the single ladies." It was silly.

After the show we sent the kids down stairs and then us Clark kids (and Betsy) started our fun singing time. We had lots of fun but then ended up singing really loud. It was fun times.
After giving Boyd and Tony headaches we decided it was time to go home. We got our things and our kids and headed home. It was a fun day at the Sutherland's and we were happy to spend the day with family.

Megan's Poor Tongue

Last Wednesday, Megan came home from school and went right for the bowls of candy on the counter.  I had separated out their Halloween candy into different bowls and she wanted to see them.  On her way off the counter she slipped and bit down hard on her tongue.  She started crying hard and tried to walk towards me in the front room (her eyes were closed from crying so hard so she kept bumping into things).  I noticed the blood right away and took her to the sink.  I had Tyler bring me a stool for her to stand on so the blood could go into the sink.  I then checked inside her mouth to see where all the blood was coming from...it was her tongue.  She had bitten down on it and had a huge hole in it.
I told Tyler to run across the street and get Max.  I wanted him to see her tongue and to confirm what I already knew (we were going to the ER).  Max came right away and said yes I did need to go.  He told me he'd stay there with the other kids so that I could take her to the ER.
I called Margie on my way to the hospital to ask her to come to my house and take care of the other kids and to relieve Max.  She, of course, dropped everything and came right away.  She is a saint.
Megan was being very brave on the drive to the ER.  It took me longer to get there then usual, which was super frustrating for me.  We finally got there and parked the car.  I took her in and got us signed in.  There were a lot of people in the waiting room, so that wasn't very good for us.  But they got us signed in and did her vitals pretty fast.  They then had us wait in a certain area where we didn't need to get another form of screening.
I had called Tony after Margie and he was on his way home from work.  He came straight to the ER and was there with us for most of the time.  Megan did so good while we waited to get called back into a room.  I let her play my phone and that seemed to help keep her mind off her bloody mouth.
They finally called us in and we waited for another 10 plus minutes for the doctor to come in.  He did come and he was really nice.  He said that they have a corn rule when it comes to holes in the mouth.  Since we could totally fit a few pieces of corn in her hole, the doctor recommended stitches.
He told us that he would have to give her a shot to put her to sleep and then they would put in the stitches.  She started crying at the word "shot."  She really was so brave through all this.  The nurse got us a room and we were able to start the process.
We got Megan changed into a gown and the nurse got her a warm blanket to get snuggley in her bed.  The nurse then put the monitors on her and showed Megan what all lines on the monitor meant.  She was so sweet to Megan.
Megan was so chill until it was shot time.  She started crying and actually moved while the nurse was doing it so she ended up getting poked twice.  She didn't like the oxygen thing in her nose so they left it out and watched her closely.
She went to sleep fast after the shot.  Her eyes were still open and she still moved around quite a bit while she was under.  The doctor put two tongue depressors sideways in the edge of her mouth to try and keep it open.  She is very strong and kept trying to bite down making it hard for the doctor to put in the stitches.
The doctor did a really good job stitching up her tongue even though she kept moving so much and it was so deep.  He did give her shots of pain meds into her tongue before he started.  The whole thing looked so painful.  I was so proud of her and how well she took everything that was thrown at her this night.
After they were all done they just let her rest.  The nurse watched her pretty close for a while and then just let her slowly wake up.  They said she needed to take a little drink and be able to stand up before she could go home.  It took her until 9:30 that night before she could do that and get discharged.
I stayed until about an hour after the stitches got put in and then I left to go get the kids from Margie's.  I took the kids home and put them to bed.  They were all worried about Megan and it was super sweet of them to ask about her.
Tony picked up some dinner for us on his way home from the hospital and got Megan a Frosty.  She thought she wanted it but really didn't.  She stayed up for a little while but then finally went to bed.  She was super tired and lucky got a good night sleep.
I thought for sure she would sleep in and then want to stay home from school.  I was wrong on both.  She woke up before me and then said she didn't want to stay home and really wanted to go to school.  I gave her some pain meds before school (just in case) and then let her go.
I told her teacher what happened and she said that she would let me know if she had any problems.  I then checked on her at lunch time and she was doing fine and wanted to stay (did I tell you how brave she is?)
Now it's over a week later and she hasn't complained one time.  She says it doesn't hurt and hasn't had any problems eating or drinking.  The tongue seems to be healing well and she is doing awesome.  The stitches are still in and doing their job.  I am so proud of my brave little girl!

Indoor Soccer

Another season of indoor soccer has begun.  Both Josh and Tyler are playing and are having a wonderful time.
Josh scored a goal in his first game and played goalie in his second game.  He loved it and did really good.
Tony is coaching Tyler's team and they are pretty good.  They have had three games so far and have lost them, but played well.  Tyler played goalie once and did pretty good and then had a really awesome assist in tonight's game.
The kids like playing on the rocks outside of the rec center and insisted I take their pictures.  They are pretty cute kids.

Happy Halloween

Another Halloween down.  I had planned on Tyler being Harry Potter this year because I had the outfit already from last year, but the night before Halloween Tyler said he really didn't want to be Harry Potter.  So Tony took him to Walmart to see what they still had available.  He really wanted to be a cop, but they didn't have any of those left so he was stuck with being Spider Man.  He seemed pretty happy about it.  Josh was a ninja, Megan was a witch, and our little Allie was an adorable Minnie Mouse.

They all had parties in their classrooms.  Allie and I helped out in Josh's class room and Allie thought that was super fun.
Tony made it home from work just in time to take the kids out trick-or-treating.  They started out down the street and went to the ward's trunk-or-treat.  Allie had an accident so I came to the church with fresh clothes.  She wasn't happy and just wanted to come home with me.  So Allie and I went back home and handed out candy to the the trick-or-treaters.

We didn't have tons of kids, but a good amount.  Tony and the three older kids had a good time going around the neighborhood.  They came home to dump out their bags and then go out again.  Allie decided that she wanted to go again so she went out with Tony and Josh decided he had enough.
After going around the block Tony came back with the other kids and they were all done for the night.  The kids then all fought over who got to pass out candy to our trick-or-treaters.  They all think this is super fun.

Since it was a school night we got the kids all ready and put to bed before too late.  They all had a wonderful time and it was another successful Halloween.

Fall Break: Day 4 & 5 - Parker Dam & Visitors Center Fun & Home

On our last day we packed up our car, checked out of our hotel and then went to check out Parker Dam.  It is located on the way back into Lake Havasu.  It is a small but very impressive dam that is kind of hidden from the main road but is located right off of the main road.  It was kind of fun to see another dam.
After we checked out the dam we went back into Lake Havasu.  We wanted to go back to the visitors center to get some souvenirs.  We found lots of fun thing to do there that we didn't notice before.  We found a jet ski that the kids could play on and some coloring pictures  They also gave each of the kids postcards.
After that we got back into the car and started our drive home.  The kids did pretty good in the car and we made good time.  We drove to St. George and stayed there for the night.  We got checked into the hotel and then went and visited with Nana.
We then all went to have dinner at The Pizza Factory.  It was really busy but it didn't take too long to get a table.  The food was good and we had a good time with Nana.  After eating, Margie and Nana went back to her place while we went to visit my Aunt Connie.
She was surprised to see us and very happy too.  She is such a nice person.  She let the kids play with a bunch of different toys and even let Josh keep any change he found on the ground.  Silly boy went looking all over their house for change.  After a nice chat we decided to go back to our hotel and get some sleep.
The next morning we checked out of our hotel and picked up Margie at Nana's house.  Then it was back on the road to go home.  It was a fun trip and we were glad that we got to go check out a new town.

Fall Break: Day 3 - Hotel Swimming

We got back to our hotel and got ready to go swimming.  It was so hot we were all looking forward to a good swim.
The pool was all ours and the water felt great.  Once the sun went down and we were in the shade it did get a little cold for me, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all.  They love the water and are all becoming very good swimmers.
Allie and I enjoyed the hot tub and then went back to our room to get washed and into pajama's while the other's stayed and swam.

We love us a good pool and a good hotel and we got both.  We all had a good time at the pool.

Fall Break: Day 3 - Exploring & Eating Ice Cream

We thought we'd find some yummy ice cream to eat so we drove around for a little while.  We found that a lot of places were already closed.  I guess they close early on the off season.
We then drove and found some older shops along a strip of road so we parked the car and walked around.

We luckily did find an ice cream shop and it was pretty good.  The kids all loved their ice cream.  We then tried to find some gifts for the kids.  We found a backpack for Allie that was a doggie.  She loved it.

We didn't find anything else for the other kids so we kept looking.  We stopped at a few more stores before heading back towards our hotel.  We decided that we were not super hungry but wanted something before going to bed.  So we ended up at McDonald's.  We ate and let the kids play at their play land.  It was a happening joint with lots of locals there.  After eating we went back to the hotel.  It was a long day but a super fun one.

Fall Break: Day 3 - Playing in Lake Havasu

After the boat tour we went drove around the town a little before stopping at a Mexican Restaurant.  The food was really good and it was nice and cool inside.
After eating the kids wanted to go swimming.  So we drove down to the water and found a good spot.  On the drive down to the water Allie fell asleep.

I volunteered to stay in the car with Allie while she slept, so that I could rest too.  While Allie was sleeping Tyler, Josh, and Megan got changed into their swimsuits and played in the lake.  I was able to watch them from the car for the first little while until I fell asleep.
Megan got tired of swimming first and then played on the playground that was by the water.  Margie and Tony decided not to swim and watched the kids in the water.
When Allie woke up she did not want to go in the water but wanted to play on the playground.  I let Tony go with Allie while I watched the boys play.  They loved the water and wanted to play for a long time.  We finally made them get out and let them air dry while playing on the playground. After that we had the boys change and we went to explore the town.

Fall Break: Day 3 - Lake Havasu Boat Ride

We got up and had breakfast before heading back into Lake Havasu.  We got us signed up for a boat tour and we wanted to make sure we got there on time.
We signed up and waited for the tour guide and captain to arrive.  It was a beautiful morning and we were all very excited to go on the boat.
The boat took us around Lake Havasu and showed us a few of the small light houses.
It was a fun ride that we all enjoyed. We were all glad we did it and enjoyed learning so much about Lake Havasu and the towns history.

Fall Break: Day 2 - Lake Havasu

Once we got to the city of Lake Havasu we wanted to go visit the London Bridge visitors center.  We had a hard time finding it and ended up driving around in circles but then we finally found it.
The area was pretty cool.  They had a big fountain and a visitors center along with some small stores around the area that were right on or by the water.
We first went to the visitors center and got a map of the area and some good information about the water and different places to eat and shop.
After getting information from the visitors center we walked around the waterfront.  We found a phone booth like they have in London as well as other London decor.  All these buildings are located under the old London bridge that they brought over from London years ago.
We walked around and found out that they have boat tours on the water and other fun events.  After we checked it all out we decided to drive around and see what else we could see in the city.
After driving around a while we decided to go check into our hotel and pick up dinner in the town of Parker where we were staying. Our hotel was really new and very nice. They even had a night reception with soms food and drinks for us. Tyler really liked that they had salad. After eating we got ready for bed and got a good nights sleep.